head to head · open source
Orca vs Frontman
Orca has 113,485 GitHub stars, 7,169 forks, 5,801 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Frontman has 721 stars, 50 forks, 236 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Orca leads on adoption by 15,640% (113,485 vs 721 stars). Orca is written in TypeScript under MIT; Frontman is written in ReScript under a custom or non-standard licence. Orca has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, Frontman 7%. Orca 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
| Orca | Frontman | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 113K | ★ 721 |
| License | MIT | Custom / other |
| Written in | TypeScript | ReScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 7.2K | ⑂ 50 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Orca if
- You weight community size — 113K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Frontman if
- You want the Frontman feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches ReScript
- You evaluated both and Frontman fits your workflow better
About Orca
Orca 中文 · 日本語 · 한국어 · Español · Français · Português The AI Orchestrator for 100x builders. Run Codex, ClaudeCode, OpenCode or Pi side by side — each in its own worktree, tracked in one place. Download Orca Features Mobile Companion Monitor and steer your agents from your phone — get notified when an agent finishes and send follow ups from anywhere. iOS App Store · TestFlight · Android APK 0.0.48 · Docs → Parallel Worktrees Fan one prompt across five agents, each in its own isolated git worktree — compare the results and merge the winner. Docs → Terminal Splits Ghostty class terminals with WebGL rendering…
About Frontman
Let product and design ship frontend fixes without opening an IDE Frontman is an open source AI coding agent that lives in your browser. Click any element in your running app, describe the change in plain English, and Frontman edits the actual source files with instant hot reload. It sees the live DOM, component tree, computed CSS, routes, source maps, and server logs, so non technical teammates can make precise frontend fixes without guessing which file owns the UI. Docs · Next.js · Astro · Vite · Discord · Demo What You Can Ask Frontman Frontman is built for small frontend changes that usually get stuck in…
read the full Frontman overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Orca or Frontman more popular?
Orca has 113,485 GitHub stars and Frontman has 721. Orca has the larger community by that measure.
Are Orca and Frontman free?
Both are open source. Orca is licensed under MIT, and Frontman has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Orca and Frontman?
Orca is written in TypeScript and Frontman in ReScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Orca or Frontman?
Choose Orca if you want the larger community (113,485 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Frontman if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.