head to head · open source
Coder vs gentle-shell
Coder has 17,263 GitHub stars, 1,644 forks, 996 open issues and last shipped yesterday. gentle-shell has 1,553 stars, 252 forks, 369 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Coder leads on adoption by 1,012% (17,263 vs 1,553 stars). Coder is written in Go under AGPL-3.0; gentle-shell is written in TypeScript under MIT. Coder has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, gentle-shell 16%. Coder 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
| Coder | gentle-shell | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 17K | ★ 1.6K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-11-04 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.6K | ⑂ 252 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Coder if
- You weight community size — 17K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick gentle-shell if
- You want the gentle-shell feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and gentle-shell fits your workflow better
About Coder
Self Hosted Cloud Development Environments and AI Agents Quickstart Docs Why Coder Premium Coder is a self hosted platform for cloud development environments and AI coding agents. Workspaces are defined with Terraform, connected through a secure Wireguard® tunnel, and automatically shut down when not used. Coder Agents runs a native AI coding agent whose loop executes in the control plane on your infrastructure, with no API keys in workspaces. Define cloud development environments in Terraform EC2 VMs, Kubernetes Pods, Docker Containers, etc. Automatically shutdown idle resources to save on costs Onboard…
read the full Coder overview →
About gentle-shell
gentle shell™ Your coding agent for controlled development in the workspace you lead. Website · Quickstart · Docs · Wiki Your terminal can run an agent. Your workspace should help you lead it. gentle shell is your coding agent, bringing your changes, tasks, and engineering workflow together—built for Pi. One workspace. A coding agent you direct. A workflow you can inspect. BUILT FOR PI · Coding agent workspace · Focused agents · ODD + optional SDD ★ Star gentle shell on GitHub Built for Pi. Shaped by Gentle AI. Features gentle shell — Your coding agent, in the workspace you lead A complete workspace for the…
read the full gentle-shell overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Coder or gentle-shell more popular?
Coder has 17,263 GitHub stars and gentle-shell has 1,553. Coder has the larger community by that measure.
Are Coder and gentle-shell free?
Both are open source. Coder is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and gentle-shell under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Coder and gentle-shell?
Coder is written in Go and gentle-shell 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, Coder or gentle-shell?
Choose Coder if you want the larger community (17,263 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose gentle-shell if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.