head to head · open source
OpenClaw vs Harness
OpenClaw has 393,747 GitHub stars, 82,755 forks, 6,671 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Harness has 38,798 stars, 3,451 forks, 106 open issues and last shipped yesterday. OpenClaw leads on adoption by 915% (393,747 vs 38,798 stars). OpenClaw is written in TypeScript under MIT; Harness is written in Go under Apache-2.0. OpenClaw has attracted 21% as many forks as stars, Harness 9%. OpenClaw 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
| OpenClaw | Harness | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 394K | ★ 39K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 83K | ⑂ 3.5K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick OpenClaw if
- You weight community size — 394K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Harness if
- You want the Harness feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and Harness fits your workflow better
About OpenClaw
OpenClaw 🦞 — Your assistant, on your devices, in your chats OpenClaw is an open source AI assistant that runs on your own computer and meets you in the channels you already use: Discord, iMessage, Slack, Teams, Telegram, WhatsApp, and 20+ more, plus native apps for macOS, iOS, Android, Windows, and Linux. One Gateway runs it as a personal assistant on a laptop or as a shared team deployment; configuration is the only difference. Yours, with no catch. State, memory, and credentials live on your hardware. Models and agent harnesses (Claude, Codex, local models) are plugins you can swap without changing anything…
read the full OpenClaw overview →
About Harness
Harness Harness Open Source is an open source development platform packed with the power of code hosting, automated DevOps pipelines, hosted development environments (Gitspaces), and artifact registries. Overview Harness Open source is an open source development platform packed with the power of code hosting, automated DevOps pipelines, Gitspaces, and artifact registries. Running Harness locally The latest publicly released docker image can be found on harness/harness. To install Harness yourself, simply run the command below. Once the container is up, you can visit in your browser. The Harness image uses a…
read the full Harness overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is OpenClaw or Harness more popular?
OpenClaw has 393,747 GitHub stars and Harness has 38,798. OpenClaw has the larger community by that measure.
Are OpenClaw and Harness free?
Both are open source. OpenClaw is licensed under MIT and Harness under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between OpenClaw and Harness?
OpenClaw is written in TypeScript and Harness in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, OpenClaw or Harness?
Choose OpenClaw if you want the larger community (393,747 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Harness if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.