Open source alternatives to Claude Code

By GitHub stars it is OpenCode, with 226,466 stars and a commit on 13 Nov. Choose OpenCode when you want open source code you can run and change yourself. Next come Pi (121,671 stars) and OpenHands (93,348 stars).

Yes. The code of all 9 is public under MIT or Apache 2.0, so you can use them with no licence fee. Running one yourself costs the server and your time to look after it, and some makers also sell a hosted plan.

Start from the job you use Claude Code for. Choose OpenHands when you want to host it yourself and keep your data on your own server. Choose goose when you want a coding agent that works with 15+ model providers, local models through Ollama included.

6 of the 9: Pi, OpenHands, Open Interpreter, goose, Qwen Code and Kilo Code. Each tool's page says what it needs to run.

8 of the 9 we track had a commit in the last 30 days, among them OpenCode, Pi, OpenHands and Open Interpreter. The quietest is Grok Build, last changed on 29 Sep. A recent commit shows the project is kept up, not that it will stay that way.

Apache 2.0 (5), MIT (4). MIT, BSD and Apache let you change and reuse the code freely.

The hosting. Claude Code's maker runs the servers for you; with an open source tool the updates, backups, security fixes and support are yours, unless you take the maker's hosted plan. Features differ too, so check what each one imports and exports before you move your data.