head to head · open source
openharness vs partmode
openharness has 529 GitHub stars, 50 forks, 40 open issues and last shipped yesterday. partmode has 511 stars, 24 forks, 11 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. openharness leads on adoption by 4% (529 vs 511 stars). openharness is written in C under MIT; partmode is written in JavaScript under AGPL-3.0. openharness has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, partmode 5%. openharness was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (3d-modeling, ai-agents, cad), 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
| openharness | partmode | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 529 | ★ 511 |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | C | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-21 | 2026-08-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 50 | ⑂ 24 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick openharness if
- You weight community size — 529 stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches C
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick partmode if
- You want the partmode feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and partmode fits your workflow better
About openharness
OpenHarness is MIT licensed open source software and hardware, written in C, that gives people who build with coding agents one place to run those agents alongside domain tools and live viewers for work beyond software — CAD parts, circuit boards, data analysis, and video.
read the full openharness overview →
About partmode
PartMode is an open source, local first 3D parametric CAD application that runs in the browser for people and for permissioned typed agents, built on OpenCascade WebAssembly, and it is aimed at mechanical designers, engineers, and agent developers who want exact parametric modelling without a desktop CAD installation.
read the full partmode overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is openharness or partmode more popular?
openharness has 529 GitHub stars and partmode has 511. openharness has the larger community by that measure.
Are openharness and partmode free?
Both are open source. openharness is licensed under MIT and partmode under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between openharness and partmode?
openharness is written in C and partmode in JavaScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, openharness or partmode?
Choose openharness if you want the larger community (529 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose partmode if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.