head to head · open source
OpenHands vs Forgecode
OpenHands has 92,511 GitHub stars, 12,330 forks, 713 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Forgecode has 7,637 stars, 1,456 forks, 45 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. OpenHands leads on adoption by 1,111% (92,511 vs 7,637 stars). OpenHands is written in TypeScript under MIT; Forgecode is written in Rust under Apache-2.0. OpenHands has attracted 13% as many forks as stars, Forgecode 19%. OpenHands was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (llm), 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
| OpenHands | Forgecode | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 93K | ★ 7.6K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-01 |
| Forks | ⑂ 12K | ⑂ 1.5K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick OpenHands if
- You weight community size — 93K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Forgecode if
- You want the Forgecode feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and Forgecode fits your workflow better
About OpenHands
Agent Canvas The self hosted developer control center for coding agents and automations. Run OpenHands, Claude Code, Codex, Gemini, or any ACP compatible agent across local, remote, and cloud backends. Quickstart Docs Self Hosting ACP Agents Automations Slack OpenHands Agent Canvas turns your coding agents into a self hosted, always on engineering team. It's a developer control center for starting conversations and automating everyday tasks — like generating reports that publish to Slack or automatically decomposing GitHub issues into tasks. It runs locally on your machine by default, but can connect to multiple…
read the full OpenHands overview →
About Forgecode
⚒️ Forge: AI Enhanced Terminal Development Environment A comprehensive coding agent that integrates AI capabilities with your development environment curl fsSL sh Table of Contents Quickstart Usage Examples Why Forge? How Forge Works: Three Modes Interactive Mode (TUI) One Shot CLI Mode ZSH Plugin Mode ( : prefix) ZSH Plugin: The : Prefix System Agents Sending Prompts Attaching Files Conversation Management Git Integration Shell Command Tools Session & Configuration Skills Customizing Agent Behavior Semantic Search (Workspace) Quick Reference: All : Commands Command Line Options Advanced Configuration Provider…
read the full Forgecode overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is OpenHands or Forgecode more popular?
OpenHands has 92,511 GitHub stars and Forgecode has 7,637. OpenHands has the larger community by that measure.
Are OpenHands and Forgecode free?
Both are open source. OpenHands is licensed under MIT and Forgecode under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between OpenHands and Forgecode?
OpenHands is written in TypeScript and Forgecode in Rust. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, OpenHands or Forgecode?
Choose OpenHands if you want the larger community (92,511 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Forgecode if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.