head to head · open source
penguin-harness vs sandboxd
penguin-harness has 3,130 GitHub stars, 335 forks, 77 open issues and last shipped yesterday. sandboxd has 976 stars, 69 forks, 14 open issues and last shipped yesterday. penguin-harness leads on adoption by 221% (3,130 vs 976 stars). penguin-harness is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; sandboxd is written in Go under MIT. penguin-harness has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, sandboxd 7%. penguin-harness was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (ai, 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
| penguin-harness | sandboxd | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 3.1K | ★ 976 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-11-04 |
| Forks | ⑂ 335 | ⑂ 69 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick penguin-harness if
- You weight community size — 3.1K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick sandboxd if
- You want the sandboxd feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and sandboxd fits your workflow better
About penguin-harness
PenguinHarness Open source, local first multi agent app development platform Fully automate building · optimizing · deploying AI applications 1000+ Models · Multi Platform · Apache 2.0 · Agent Self Evolution = 24" / English 简体中文 Why PenguinHarness With LangChain, you build agents by hand — at 1× speed. With PenguinHarness, agents build agents — at 100×. PenguinHarness runs on your computer or server and automates the agent app lifecycle from creation and evaluation to optimization and deployment. Three reasons define the platform: 1. 🏆 Outstanding results at tens of times less cost A deliberately minimal…
read the full penguin-harness overview →
About sandboxd
sandboxd Open source, self hosted AI app builder. Prompt it and a coding agent builds real apps in isolated sandboxes on your server — each live at a preview URL. You own the infra, code, and data. MIT. 🔥 Trend of the Day on Trendshift Prompt → a real, running app on your server, at its own URL. See it in action 👇 1 · Build from a prompt — an agent builds it in an isolated sandbox, live at a preview URL. 2 · Or run an existing app — n8n, Ghost, Grafana… 80+ curated apps, one click. 3 · Or drive the API — every action is a /v1 call, headless & scriptable. ▶ Try the live demo Click around a real console with…
read the full sandboxd overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is penguin-harness or sandboxd more popular?
penguin-harness has 3,130 GitHub stars and sandboxd has 976. penguin-harness has the larger community by that measure.
Are penguin-harness and sandboxd free?
Both are open source. penguin-harness is licensed under Apache-2.0 and sandboxd under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between penguin-harness and sandboxd?
penguin-harness is written in TypeScript and sandboxd in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, penguin-harness or sandboxd?
Choose penguin-harness if you want the larger community (3,130 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose sandboxd if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.