head to head · open source
Orca vs Continue
Orca has 71,017 GitHub stars, 4,642 forks, 5,801 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Continue has 35,946 stars, 5,395 forks, 951 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Orca leads on adoption by 98% (71,017 vs 35,946 stars). Orca is written in TypeScript under MIT; Continue is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. Orca has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, Continue 15%. Orca was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (cli), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
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
| Orca | Continue | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 71K | ★ 36K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.6K | ⑂ 5.4K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Orca if
- You weight community size — 71K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Continue if
- You want the Continue 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 Continue fits your workflow better
About Orca
Orca is an agent desktop environment (ADE) that runs multiple AI coding agents in parallel, each in its own isolated git worktree. It unifies workflow, monitoring, and collaboration around AI assisted coding across desktop, mobile, and remote runtimes. Built for developers who rely on several AI coding tools simultaneously, Orca eliminates context switching by tracking all agents and their outputs in one place.
About Continue
Continue is an open source coding agent designed to assist developers directly within their IDE or terminal. It operates as a CLI tool, VS Code extension, and JetBrains plugin, enabling natural language interaction with codebases to generate, edit, and explain code. The project lives in the AI assisted developer tools ecosystem and is built with TypeScript under the Apache 2.0 license.
read the full Continue overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Orca or Continue more popular?
Orca has 71,017 GitHub stars and Continue has 35,946. Orca has the larger community by that measure.
Are Orca and Continue free?
Both are open source. Orca is licensed under MIT and Continue under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Orca and Continue?
Orca is written in TypeScript and Continue 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, Orca or Continue?
Choose Orca if you want the larger community (71,017 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Continue if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.