On architecture this is the closest match on the site — both ShipIt and OpenHands (formerly OpenDevin) are open-source, self-hostable, Docker-isolated platforms for running AI coding agents. The differences are about focus: model flexibility and the autonomous agent vs. the full ship loop on your infrastructure.
OpenHands is the broader, more model-flexible autonomous agent platform. It runs a wide range of LLMs — including local models — through one interface, has a large community, and is known for strong results on coding benchmarks. If model choice and the agent itself are your priority, OpenHands leads.
ShipIt is the more opinionated, full-loop product. It runs Claude Code or Codex specifically, and wraps them in the surrounding workflow: a live app preview per session, the GitHub PR/CI/deploy cycle inline, Linear/GitHub issues, parallel PR-shaped sessions, and a mobile-first UI. You trade OpenHands' model breadth for a tighter ship loop.
| Capability | ShipIt | OpenHands |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Self-hosted IDE that runs coding-agent CLIs through your ship loop | Open-source platform for an autonomous AI software-developer agent |
| Hosting model | Self-hosted — your VPS or local Docker | Self-hostable via Docker; hosted OpenHands Cloud also offered |
| License | Open source, Apache 2.0 | MIT core; the enterprise/ directory is separately licensed |
| Agents / models | Claude Code or Codex CLIs (more runtimes planned) | Model-agnostic — many LLMs via a unified interface, incl. local models |
| Isolated environment per task | Yes — one Docker container per session | Yes — sandboxed Docker runtime per agent |
| Parallel sessions | Many isolated sessions, each a branch + PR | Concurrent conversations, plus documented parallel sub-agent delegation |
| Live app to test against | Yes — Docker Compose preview per session, with services the agent starts, stops, and tails itself | Agent has a sandbox/browser; not a managed Compose app preview |
| GitHub PR / CI / deploy loop | Inline — PR card, CI, review threads, deploy status in chat; sessions can wake on their own PR merge | Can open PRs and act on repos; less of an inline PR/CI cockpit |
| Issue tracking | Linear + GitHub Issues inline; start a session from an issue | GitHub integration; not a built-in multi-tracker inline view |
| Mobile | Mobile-first installable PWA, with voice in/out | Web UI; no native mobile app documented |
| Community / focus | Smaller; focused on the full ship loop | Large community; benchmark-driven (SWE-bench) autonomous agent |
OpenHands (by All Hands AI, formerly OpenDevin) is an open-source platform for an autonomous AI software-developer agent. Its core is MIT-licensed (the enterprise directory is separately licensed) and self-hostable via Docker: the agent runs in a sandboxed runtime where it can write code, run commands, and use a browser. A defining feature is model flexibility — it works with a wide range of LLMs through a unified interface, including hosted providers and local models — and it has a large, active community with a strong focus on coding benchmarks like SWE-bench. There's also a hosted OpenHands Cloud for people who don't want to run it themselves.
ShipIt is a self-hosted, chat-driven IDE for running coding agents through your real engineering loop. It's Apache-2.0 licensed and runs on a VPS you own or local Docker. Rather than supporting many raw models, it orchestrates specific agent CLIs — Claude Code and Codex — on the subscription or API key you already have. Each task runs as a session in its own isolated Docker container with a full repo clone and a live instance of your app (via Docker Compose) to test against. The GitHub PR lifecycle, CI checks, review threads, and deploy status render inline in chat, alongside your Linear and GitHub issues, and the whole thing is mobile-first with voice.
Deep — on isolation architecture, deeper than any other comparison here. Both are open source, both are self-hostable on your own infrastructure, and both isolate each agent run in a sandboxed Docker environment so a misbehaving agent has a limited blast radius. Both can act on your repositories and open pull requests. If your baseline requirement is "open-source, self-hosted, container-isolated AI coding agent," either tool qualifies.
OpenHands supports far more models than ShipIt. If you want to run local or self-hosted LLMs, or pick from a wide menu of providers, OpenHands is built for that and ShipIt is deliberately narrow — it runs Claude Code and Codex (with more runtimes planned, but not today). OpenHands also has a larger community and a sharper focus on the autonomous agent's capability and benchmark performance, and it documents parallel sub-agent delegation of its own. If the agent and model layer is what you're optimizing, OpenHands is the broader choice there.
ShipIt's advantage is everything around the agent. Where OpenHands centers the agent run, ShipIt centers the ship loop: a live, isolated instance of your full app to build and test against every session, with the agent starting, stopping, and tailing the Compose services it needs — plus a JDK, the Android SDK, and Gradle in the session image, so it can build a Gradle project and show a running emulator in the preview panel; the GitHub PR/CI/deploy cycle and review threads inline in chat rather than in another tab, down to a one-click sync when your branch falls behind and sessions that wake on their own PR merge; Linear and GitHub issues in the same surface, with the ability to start a session straight from an issue; parallel sessions that are each reviewable as their own pull request; and a mobile-first interface with voice so you can drive and review work from a phone. If you've already settled on Claude Code or Codex and what you want is the workflow wrapped tightly around them, that specific job is what ShipIt is built for.
Both are open-source and self-hostable, and both run agents in isolated Docker environments. The biggest differences are in focus: OpenHands is model-agnostic and centers the autonomous agent loop (it works with many LLMs via a unified interface and is known for strong SWE-bench results), while ShipIt is agent-CLI-agnostic (Claude Code and Codex specifically) and centers the full ship loop — a live app preview per session, the GitHub PR/CI/deploy cycle inline, Linear/GitHub issues, and a mobile-first UI with voice.
Yes. OpenHands (by All Hands AI, formerly OpenDevin) is open source under the MIT license (the enterprise/ directory is separately licensed) and can be self-hosted via Docker; the agent runs in a sandboxed runtime. There is also a hosted OpenHands Cloud. ShipIt is open source under Apache 2.0 and self-hosted on your own VPS or local Docker.
OpenHands supports a broad range of LLMs through a unified model interface, including providers like Anthropic and OpenAI and many others, plus local/self-hosted models. ShipIt is narrower by design: it runs the Claude Code and Codex agent CLIs (with more runtimes planned). If running local or a wide variety of models matters most, OpenHands is the broader choice today.
Pick ShipIt when the surrounding workflow matters as much as the agent: an isolated live app to test against per session, the GitHub PR/CI/deploy loop and review threads inline in chat, issues from Linear and GitHub in the same place, parallel sessions each reviewable as a PR, and a genuinely mobile-first interface. Pick OpenHands when you want maximum model flexibility (including local models) and a large, benchmark-driven community around the autonomous agent itself.
Run Claude Code or Codex in isolated containers on your own infrastructure, with a live app, the GitHub loop, and your issues inline.
