head to head · open source
Paperclip vs Continue
Paperclip has 80,932 GitHub stars, 14,855 forks, 5,464 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Continue has 35,946 stars, 5,395 forks, 951 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Paperclip leads on adoption by 125% (80,932 vs 35,946 stars). Paperclip is written in TypeScript under MIT; Continue is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. Paperclip has attracted 18% as many forks as stars, Continue 15%. 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 | Continue | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 81K | ★ 36K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 15K | ⑂ 5.4K |
| 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 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 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 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 Paperclip or Continue more popular?
Paperclip has 80,932 GitHub stars and Continue has 35,946. Paperclip has the larger community by that measure.
Are Paperclip and Continue free?
Both are open source. Paperclip is licensed under MIT and Continue under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Paperclip and Continue?
Paperclip 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, Paperclip or Continue?
Choose Paperclip if you want the larger community (80,932 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Continue if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.