head to head · open source
Paperclip vs Orca
Paperclip has 80,932 GitHub stars, 14,855 forks, 5,464 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Orca has 71,017 stars, 4,642 forks, 5,801 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Paperclip leads on adoption by 14% (80,932 vs 71,017 stars). Paperclip is written in TypeScript under MIT; Orca is written in TypeScript under MIT. Paperclip has attracted 18% as many forks as stars, Orca 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
| Paperclip | Orca | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 81K | ★ 71K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 15K | ⑂ 4.6K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Paperclip if
- You weight community size — 81K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Orca if
- You want the Orca feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Orca fits your workflow better
About Paperclip
Paperclip is an open source orchestration platform for managing teams of AI agents in production environments. It lives in the Node.js and React ecosystem and is licensed under MIT. The project addresses the operational chaos that arises when deploying multiple autonomous AI agents—such as OpenClaw, Claude Code, Codex, or Cursor—across an organization. Without coordination, teams face untraceable workflows, runaway costs, misaligned goals, and poor governance. Paperclip solves this by providing a unified dashboard that enforces org structure, budget controls, goal alignment, and auditability across heterogeneous …
read the full Paperclip overview →
About Orca
Orca is an agent desktop environment (ADE) that runs multiple AI coding agents in parallel, each in its own isolated git worktree. It unifies workflow, monitoring, and collaboration around AI assisted coding across desktop, mobile, and remote runtimes. Built for developers who rely on several AI coding tools simultaneously, Orca eliminates context switching by tracking all agents and their outputs in one place.
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Frequently asked questions
Is Paperclip or Orca more popular?
Paperclip has 80,932 GitHub stars and Orca has 71,017. Paperclip has the larger community by that measure.
Are Paperclip and Orca free?
Both are open source. Paperclip is licensed under MIT and Orca under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Paperclip and Orca?
Paperclip is written in TypeScript and Orca 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, Paperclip or Orca?
Choose Paperclip if you want the larger community (80,932 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Orca if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.