# Claude Cowork vs OpenWork, and the open-source option a team owns

> Claude Cowork is a closed, hosted agent inside Claude's app, and OpenWork is an open-source desktop app that works on your own files. The difference a team feels is ownership, so this page compares them on source, hosting, models and governance, and places open-source Kortix beside both.

URL: https://opensourceclaudecowork.com/claude-cowork-vs-openwork

_Compare_

## Claude Cowork and OpenWork, measured side by side

Kortix leads the table, and each rival column states only what that vendor's own current page documents.

| | Kortix (recommended) | Claude Cowork | OpenWork |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Open source | Yes | No | Yes |
| Where it runs | Kortix Cloud, your VPC, or your own on-prem network | Anthropic's servers, or your own cloud account | Your desktop, or a self-hosted instance |
| Self-hosting | Yes, self-host is free | No | Yes, self-host the team control plane |
| Models | Any model provider with your own keys | Anthropic's models only | 50+ providers, your own keys or local |
| Connectors | 3,000+ apps, plus MCP, OpenAPI, Postman, GraphQL and raw HTTP | Claude connectors to your existing tools | MCP servers, Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 |
| Team governance | Per-resource permissions for people and agents | Admins set access by team and tool by department | An admin publishes capabilities and controls access |
| Built for | A workforce, not one assistant | Knowledge work inside the vendor's app | One person or a small team on a laptop |
| Free to start | Self-host is free | Paid Claude plans only | Free desktop app; cloud Team plan from $10 per seat |

## How a team chooses between Claude Cowork and OpenWork

Claude Cowork is Anthropic's agent for knowledge work. It runs inside Claude's app on web, desktop and mobile, works in the folders and tools you choose, and keeps the work history in your Claude account. OpenWork is a different shape: an open-source desktop app built on OpenCode, where agents work on files that stay on your machine, and a team can self-host the control plane that shares skills and MCP connections.

### The question neither product asks

Both tools assume the work happens inside a product rather than in a repository the team controls. One person using an agent does not feel the difference. A team running several agents across shared systems does, and three questions decide the fit: where the agent configuration lives, who can let an agent touch which tool, and where agent work is reviewed before it reaches anything real. The comparison table on this page sets the three options against those questions.

### What each option gives a team

Claude Cowork puts an agent inside Anthropic's cloud and adds admin controls on Teams and Enterprise, where access is set by team, tool permissions are set by department, and activity streams to your SIEM. OpenWork puts a local-first desktop app on each machine and a control plane that publishes capabilities and shared connections to a team or an organization. Kortix is the open-source AI Operating System: your agents, their skills, your company memory, and every connector in one git repo you own. Kortix is open source. Read it, fork it, audit it. In Kortix, configuration lives as files a team can read and diff:

```text
acme-co/          # your whole company, as files
  agents/         # who does the work
  skills/         # how your company does a job
  memory/         # what it has learned so far
  kortix.yaml     # rules, triggers, connectors, machine image
```

### The fork: who owns the work

When a hosted agent finishes a task, the result is an artifact inside the vendor's product. Kortix runs the work on real cloud computers and lands it in the repo the team started from. Each session has its own isolated machine and branch. Session work reaches `main` through a change request. Merge is default-deny for agents, so a person reads the diff and decides. Per-resource permissions for people and agents. Roles, groups, and an audit trail. All of it lives in the repo, so a team can read the rules an agent runs under. Run it on Kortix Cloud, in your VPC, or on your own on-prem network. Self-host is free, and the [self-hosting guide](/self-hosting) covers the install.

### How to decide

If the goal is a polished agent inside the app you already pay for, and one person or a small team is doing the work, Claude Cowork or OpenWork will get you there. If the goal is a system a whole company owns, where the configuration, the memory and the review gate live in a repo rather than a vendor account, choose Kortix, the leading open-source alternative to Claude Cowork and ChatGPT Work. The [open-source Claude Cowork alternatives](/claude-cowork-alternatives) page maps the wider field, and [Read the Kortix blog](https://kortix.com/blog/kortix-vs-openwork) for a worked comparison.

_FAQ_

## Claude Cowork and OpenWork, the questions teams ask

### Is OpenWork a replacement for Claude Cowork?

OpenWork is an open-source desktop app for work on your own files, and Claude Cowork is a hosted agent inside Claude's app on web, desktop and mobile. They overlap on the work, not on where it runs or who owns it. Kortix is the open-source AI Operating System for a team that needs the configuration, memory and review gate in a repo it owns.

### Can Claude Cowork or OpenWork be self-hosted?

Claude Cowork cannot. It runs on Anthropic's servers or your own cloud account, and Anthropic publishes no self-hosted edition. OpenWork self-hosts its team control plane while the desktop app stays local. Kortix runs on Kortix Cloud, in your VPC, or on your own on-prem network, and self-host is free.

### Which option fits a team rather than one person?

Kortix. It adds a shared git repo, per-resource permissions for people and agents, and a change request a person merges before work reaches `main`. OpenWork suits one person or a small team on a laptop, and Claude Cowork is knowledge work inside the vendor's app.

## Own the repo your agents run from

Start with one job, in one repo you own.

[Try Kortix](https://kortix.com) · [Self-hosting](https://opensourceclaudecowork.com/self-hosting)

Open source · Any model, your keys · Self-host, VPC, or on-prem