head to head · open source
ponytail vs OpenComputer
ponytail has 182,779 GitHub stars, 10,094 forks, 270 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. OpenComputer has 583 stars, 68 forks, 30 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. ponytail leads on adoption by 31,251% (182,779 vs 583 stars). ponytail is written in JavaScript under MIT; OpenComputer is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. ponytail has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, OpenComputer 12%. OpenComputer 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
| ponytail | OpenComputer | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 183K | ★ 583 |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-10-29 | 2026-11-01 |
| Forks | ⑂ 10K | ⑂ 68 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick ponytail if
- You weight community size — 183K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick OpenComputer if
- You want the OpenComputer feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and OpenComputer fits your workflow better
About ponytail
Ponytail He says nothing. He writes one line. It works. 54% less code (up to 94%) · 20% cheaper · 27% faster · 100% safe Measured on real Claude Code sessions editing a real open source repo (FastAPI + React), against the same agent with no skill. 54% is the mean across 12 feature tasks (Haiku 4.5, n=4); it reaches 94% where an agent over builds (a date picker) and is near zero where the code is already minimal. ponytail keeps every safety guard while a bare "write one liners" prompt drops one. (The earlier single shot benchmark reported 80 94% as a flat figure; against a fair agentic…
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About OpenComputer
OpenComputer Build, steer, and deploy serverless agents as code. An OpenComputer project contains one or more agents that run in the cloud. Watch agent code and deploy changes to Development (Cloud): Documentation · Quickstart · Dashboard Project structure npx @opencomputer/cli init creates a hello world agent project: The opencomputer/ tree contains the cloud agent definitions and is designed to grow to multiple agents in one project. A browser application can live in the same repository, but it has its own development and deployment lifecycle. Develop and deploy On the first npm run deploy watch , choose an…
read the full OpenComputer overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is ponytail or OpenComputer more popular?
ponytail has 182,779 GitHub stars and OpenComputer has 583. ponytail has the larger community by that measure.
Are ponytail and OpenComputer free?
Both are open source. ponytail is licensed under MIT and OpenComputer under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between ponytail and OpenComputer?
ponytail is written in JavaScript and OpenComputer 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, ponytail or OpenComputer?
Choose ponytail if you want the larger community (182,779 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose OpenComputer if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.