Every alternative, in one table.
Sorted open-source first. "Licence" is as published upstream. "Where it runs" is the decisive column for regulated teams.
| Tool | Licence | Where it runs | Models | Isolation | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenWork | MIT | Local desktop (macOS/Windows/Linux) | 50+ via BYOK | Local process | Most visible open-source Cowork; on OpenCode |
| OpenHands | MIT | Docker / your infra | Any LLM backend | Container per task | Strong for software tasks |
| Kortix / Suna | Elastic 2.0 (source-available) | Your cloud/VPC/on-prem or managed | Any provider, your keys | Disposable sandbox per session | Org-scale: agents/skills/memory as git files; review-gated merges |
| Kuse | Open source (Rust) | Local desktop | Multi-provider | Local process | Lightweight, filesystem-focused |
| Open Cowork | MIT | Windows/macOS desktop | Claude/GPT/Gemini/DeepSeek/local via BYOK | VM-level sandbox | GUI over your own keys |
| Cursor | Closed | Cloud + desktop | Multi-model (hosted) | Vendor-managed | Coding-first; some local-model support |
| ChatGPT agent | Closed | OpenAI cloud | OpenAI models | Vendor-managed | Web-based task execution |
| Perplexity Computer | Closed | Perplexity cloud | Perplexity models | Vendor-managed | Autonomous, research-oriented; usage-priced |
| Claude Cowork (baseline) | Closed | Anthropic cloud + Claude desktop | Anthropic only | Folder-scoped permissions | The thing being replaced |
How to read the table
- Licence: MIT/Apache are OSI-approved; Elastic 2.0 is source-available (source yes, commercial hosted-service restrictions).
- Where it runs: the cloud-only rows cannot be used where data must stay on-prem.
- Models: BYOK means you choose the provider and pay usage directly; vendor-managed means the price includes inference.
- Isolation: per-session sandboxes bound an agent's blast radius.