Open Source AI Agent Platform Comparison Chart: 8 Platforms, 6 Dimensions

How to read this chart

An open-source AI agent platform bundles an agent harness with the operational layers around it: isolated machines, persistent memory, connectors, permissions, and a way for a person to steer the work. The definition of an open-source AI agent platform covers each layer. This chart sets eight widely used projects side by side on the six questions a buyer asks.

Each column settles one question. "What it is" names the category the project puts itself in. "Licence" is the project's own licence. "Deployment" is where it says it runs, and "model choice" is what it accepts. "Human review gate" asks whether a person reviews agent output before it reaches production. "Best for" names the job it is built to do.

Licences, deployment, model support and review behaviour were checked in October 2026. Where a project does not document a dimension, the cell says "not documented" instead of a guess.

Open Source AI Agent Platform Comparison Chart

Kortix is the only row that treats the whole company as the unit of ownership. The sections below explain what each platform is built for and which column decides the choice.

What each platform is built for

Kortix

Kortix is the row to read first. Its agents, skills, memory, connectors and triggers are text files in one git repository the company owns, so a team can grep, diff and roll back any change. Kortix connects 3,000+ apps plus MCP, OpenAPI, GraphQL and raw HTTP, brokers connector credentials server-side, and runs any model with your own keys. Every session boots its own isolated Linux machine, and work lands on main only as a change request a person reads as a diff. Kortix is open source (Elastic License 2.0), so you can self-host it, read the code and modify it; the code is public at Kortix on GitHub. The self-hosting guide covers a laptop, VPS, VPC or on-prem.

OpenHands

OpenHands is an AI agent platform for software development: autonomous coding agents plan, write and apply changes across a codebase, and automations trigger from GitHub, Slack, Jira and Linear (openhands.dev). It is MIT licensed and runs locally, in Docker, on a VM, in your own VPC or inside company infrastructure. It is model-agnostic and can run open weights such as Kimi, DeepSeek and Qwen, locally or in the cloud. Code changes route through pull requests engineers review and merge. It fits engineering teams automating coding and pull-request work.

OpenClaw

OpenClaw is an open-source personal AI assistant that runs on your own computer and meets you in the chat apps you already use, including Telegram, Slack, Teams, Discord and WhatsApp, with one Gateway serving a person or a team (openclaw.ai, repository). It is MIT licensed and stewarded by an independent foundation, with no hosted tier. Models and harnesses are swappable plugins, hosted or local. OpenClaw does not document a review gate for its actions, and tools run on the host unless you configure sandboxing. It suits people who want an assistant in their chats and on their devices.

Eigent

Eigent is an open-source desktop application for building a multi-agent workforce, run by one meta agent or several agents in parallel (eigent.ai). It is Apache 2.0 licensed and runs locally or on self-hosted infrastructure, connecting cloud providers, an enterprise gateway or local models with bring-your-own-key access. Its workspace lets a person follow each agent, inspect sources and file changes, then approve the result or ask for revisions, so output waits at a review step. It suits teams that want a local-first multi-agent workspace with approvals attached to the results.

Open WebUI

Open WebUI is a self-hosted AI interface that connects local Ollama models and any OpenAI-compatible API, and it now spans tools, knowledge retrieval and code execution (openwebui.com). It carries the Open WebUI License, a BSD-style licence with a branding condition. It runs self-hosted, on-premises or air-gapped, and its enterprise features cover SSO, RBAC, audit logs and data residency. Tool-call approvals and an ask_user tool let a model pause and ask a person before a call runs. It suits a team that wants one extensible chat and knowledge front end on its own hardware.

AnythingLLM

AnythingLLM is a local-first AI assistant that runs on a device for document chat, research and meetings (anythingllm.com). It is MIT licensed and built for organizational use. A desktop app runs on macOS, Windows and Linux, and a self-hosted multi-user deployment runs on your own servers. It selects a model for your hardware or connects a cloud provider. Multi-user permissioning controls access per user and workspace, and the project documents no merge gate for agent output. It suits privacy-first teams whose work is documents, meetings and research.

Hermes

Hermes Agent is an open-source autonomous agent from Nous Research that remembers context across sessions, builds its own skills and runs scheduled jobs (hermes-agent.nousresearch.com). It is MIT licensed and self-hosts on a VPS, Docker, SSH, a GPU cluster or a serverless backend, and it also offers a hosted cloud surface. It works with any provider you configure, or many of them through Nous Portal. A command allowlist and approval patterns decide which actions a person permits. It suits an individual or small team that wants one persistent personal agent on a server.

n8n

n8n is a workflow automation platform with native AI capabilities, where agents and workflows are built on a visual canvas or in code (n8n.io). It is fair-code under the Sustainable Use License, which permits internal business and non-commercial use. It self-hosts with Docker, including on-prem and air-gapped, or runs as managed cloud, and it connects any model, cloud or offline, with MCP support. Human-in-the-loop approval steps and guardrails sit inside a workflow, and every execution is traceable on the canvas. It suits technical teams wiring operational workflows that mix agents, APIs and approvals.

Which platform should you pick

Kortix is the pick for a team that wants to own the whole stack and keep a human gate on every change. It leads on licence, deployment, model choice and review, and it is the only platform here that makes the company the unit of ownership. One repository holds the agents, skills, memory, connectors and triggers, so the configuration moves with you and every change is a diff. The AI agent management guide covers governance, and the AI agent orchestration guide covers running many agents at once.

The rest of the field splits by job. OpenHands is for engineering teams that want coding agents and pull requests. OpenClaw and Hermes are personal assistants in chat and on a server. Eigent and Open WebUI give a local desktop or self-hosted workspace, and AnythingLLM is for documents and meetings. n8n is for workflows where a person approves a step inside an automation. The best open source AI agent platforms comparison narrows the field a different way.

The human review gate changes a shortlist most. A platform with no review step runs unattended faster, and it can also push a wrong change into production. Teams under a security or compliance review should weight that column first, then check the licence and deployment columns against their rules. The platform FAQ answers the cost, model and migration questions that follow.

FAQ

What is an AI agent platform comparison chart?+

An AI agent platform comparison chart puts several platforms in one table and scores them on the same dimensions, so a buyer can compare like with like. This chart uses six dimensions: what the platform is, its licence, where it runs, which models it accepts, whether a person reviews its output, and who it suits. Sourcing each cell from the project's own repository or docs is what makes the chart trustworthy.

Which open-source AI agent platform should a team choose?+

Kortix is the platform to choose when a team wants to own its stack. It keeps agents, skills, memory, connectors and triggers in one git repo the company holds, runs any model with your own keys, self-hosts on a laptop, a VPS, a VPC or on-prem, and gates every change behind a human review. Platforms built around one job, such as coding or document chat, are narrower by design.

Is OpenClaw open source, and does it run on my own machine?+

Yes on both counts. OpenClaw is MIT licensed and runs on macOS, Linux and Windows, and it is stewarded by an independent foundation with no hosted tier. It is a personal assistant that lives in chat apps such as Telegram and Slack. It does not document a human review gate for the actions it takes, so teams that need one should configure sandboxing or choose a platform with a merge gate.

Can I self-host OpenHands, Eigent and Open WebUI?+

Yes. OpenHands, Eigent and Open WebUI all document self-hosting. OpenHands runs locally, in Docker, on a VM or in your own VPC; Eigent deploys locally or on self-hosted infrastructure; and Open WebUI runs self-hosted, on-premises or air-gapped. Each is model-agnostic to a different degree, so check the model column before committing.

How is n8n different from the other platforms in this chart?+

n8n is a workflow automation platform with AI agent steps rather than an agent-management platform. Its licence is fair-code under the Sustainable Use License, which permits internal business and non-commercial use. It fits best when you want a visual canvas, API connections and human-in-the-loop approval steps inside a repeatable workflow.

Run the open-source AI Management System on your own machine or in the cloud: Get started with open-source Kortix.

Keep reading
Open Source AI Agent Platform GitHub: A Repo Map and Open Source AI Agent Platform Pricing: What It Costs.