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OpenHands

OpenHands

Open-source AI software development agent for your terminal

$20/mo (Cloud) ✗ Split Opinion Visit Website ↗

Score Breakdown

8.0
8.2
9.3
Task Autonomy 8.8
8.3 8.5 9.5
Accuracy & Reliability 8.4
8.0 8.2 9.0
Speed & Performance 7.8
7.5 7.3 8.5
Tool Integration 8.8
8.5 8.4 9.5
Safety & Guardrails 8.5
8.5 8.1 9.0
Cost Efficiency 8.5
9.0 7.6 9.0
Ease of Use 7.2
6.8 6.9 8.0
Multi-step Reasoning 8.6
8.0 8.4 9.5

Judge Opinions

Claude Opus 8.0

"OpenHands is the leading open-source autonomous coding agent platform, combining SOTA benchmark performance with Docker/Kubernetes sandboxed execution and an SDK for defining custom agent workflows at scale. The $18.8M Series A and enterprise adoption validate its production readiness, but agent accuracy is not infallible — expect partial completions on complex multi-step tasks, and human review remains essential for critical code paths."

+ Docker/Kubernetes sandboxed execution provides best-in-class agent safety with full isolation from host systems
+ Agent SDK enables defining custom agents in Python code and scaling to thousands of parallel instances via cloud
+ At-cost pricing with zero markup and no ACU-style metering — agent costs are predictable and transparent
+ Open-source transparency provides full visibility into agent decision-making, reasoning chains, and tool usage
- Autonomous agents will partially complete tasks — the platform itself acknowledges it 'will probably miss some parts'
- Agent quality ceiling is entirely determined by the underlying LLM model chosen by the user
- Self-hosted multi-agent orchestration requires significant Docker/Kubernetes infrastructure expertise
- Campaign-mode operations across large codebases are powerful but complex to configure correctly
GPT-5.2 8.2

"As an agent, OpenHands can decompose multi-step tasks and drive a full loop (inspect repo, implement, run tests, iterate) with minimal hand-holding. The trade-off is operational complexity: you need to set guardrails, pick the right backend, and monitor longer runs to keep cost and correctness under control."

+ High task autonomy for multi-step work that requires tools (shell + files + browser)
+ Good at planning and revising based on tool output (test failures, logs, and runtime errors)
+ Flexible tool integration surface for adding connectors and services via configuration
+ Safety can be tuned via sandboxing, permissions, and approval workflows
+ Works well for long-running tasks because it persists state across steps
- Setup and ops overhead (containers, providers, credentials) can be a barrier for individuals
- Long tasks can be slow, and cost grows with the number of tool iterations
- Autonomous runs still need human oversight to catch subtle logic bugs and overbroad edits
- Results depend heavily on repo hygiene (tests, lint, and reproducible commands)
Gemini 3 9.3

"As an agent, OpenHands is a powerhouse. It excels at asynchronous, multi-step tasks like refactoring monoliths or upgrading dependencies across a codebase. Its ability to integrate directly with GitHub/GitLab webshooks allows it to act as an autonomous teammate rather than just a tool, though this power comes with a complexity cost."

+ Integrates directly with CI/CD, Slack, and Issue trackers for fully automated workflows
+ Capable of planning and executing massive refactors across hundreds of files
+ Open platform design prevents vendor lock-in for critical infrastructure
+ Strong safety guardrails via isolated execution environments
- Setup for custom workflows ranges from moderate to high complexity
- Debugging agent failures in long-running loops can be difficult
- Requires significant API spend for complex, multi-step reasoning chains

/// RECOMMENDED_USE_CASE

"Developers who want a full SWE agent that can autonomously solve GitHub issues and modify code across files"

Appears In

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