head to head · open source
Orca vs Paperclip
Orca has 113,485 GitHub stars, 7,169 forks, 5,801 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Paperclip has 110,292 stars, 18,270 forks, 5,464 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Orca leads on adoption by 3% (113,485 vs 110,292 stars). Orca is written in TypeScript under MIT; Paperclip is written in TypeScript under MIT. Orca has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, Paperclip 17%. Paperclip was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (ai-agents, claude-code), 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
| Orca | Paperclip | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 113K | ★ 110K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 7.2K | ⑂ 18K |
| 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 Paperclip if
- You want the Paperclip feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Paperclip 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 Paperclip
Quickstart · Docs · GitHub · Discord · Twitter · Website Paperclip is the app people use to manage AI agents for work. Open source orchestration for teams of AI agents. If OpenClaw is an employee , Paperclip is the company . Paperclip is a Node.js server and React UI that orchestrates a team of AI agents to run a business. Bring your own agents, assign goals, and track work and costs from one dashboard. It looks like a task manager. Under the hood: org charts, budgets, governance, goal alignment, and agent coordination. Manage business goals, not pull requests. Works with…
read the full Paperclip overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Orca or Paperclip more popular?
Orca has 113,485 GitHub stars and Paperclip has 110,292. Orca has the larger community by that measure.
Are Orca and Paperclip free?
Both are open source. Orca is licensed under MIT and Paperclip under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Orca and Paperclip?
Orca is written in TypeScript and Paperclip 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, Orca or Paperclip?
Choose Orca if you want the larger community (113,485 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Paperclip if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.