head to head · open source
Paperclip vs Cline
Paperclip has 80,932 GitHub stars, 14,855 forks, 5,464 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Cline has 68,517 stars, 7,409 forks, 1,288 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Paperclip leads on adoption by 18% (80,932 vs 68,517 stars). Paperclip is written in TypeScript under MIT; Cline is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. Paperclip has attracted 18% as many forks as stars, Cline 11%. Paperclip was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| Paperclip | Cline | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 81K | ★ 69K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 15K | ⑂ 7.4K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Paperclip if
- You weight community size — 81K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Cline if
- You want the Cline feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Cline fits your workflow better
About Paperclip
Paperclip is an open source orchestration platform for managing teams of AI agents in production environments. It lives in the Node.js and React ecosystem and is licensed under MIT. The project addresses the operational chaos that arises when deploying multiple autonomous AI agents—such as OpenClaw, Claude Code, Codex, or Cursor—across an organization. Without coordination, teams face untraceable workflows, runaway costs, misaligned goals, and poor governance. Paperclip solves this by providing a unified dashboard that enforces org structure, budget controls, goal alignment, and auditability across heterogeneous …
read the full Paperclip overview →
About Cline
Cline is an open source AI coding agent that operates across multiple interfaces: as a CLI tool, desktop application, VS Code extension, JetBrains plugin, and SDK. It lives in the developer tooling ecosystem and is built with TypeScript under the Apache 2.0 license. The project solves the problem of fragmented AI assisted coding workflows by unifying agent capabilities—code generation, command execution, project wide edits, and human in the loop approval—into a single extensible engine that works consistently across environments.
read the full Cline overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Paperclip or Cline more popular?
Paperclip has 80,932 GitHub stars and Cline has 68,517. Paperclip has the larger community by that measure.
Are Paperclip and Cline free?
Both are open source. Paperclip is licensed under MIT and Cline under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Paperclip and Cline?
Paperclip is written in TypeScript and Cline in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Paperclip or Cline?
Choose Paperclip if you want the larger community (80,932 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Cline if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.