OpenHands vs GitHub Copilot
Both are alternatives to Cursor. Here's how they stack up — verified facts, no spin.
Also searched as GitHub Copilot vs OpenHands — same comparison, one verdict.
OpenHands is open source (MIT) and GitHub Copilot is not (Proprietary (hosted service; MIT-licensed VS Code chat client)) — so the real question is whether you want to own the ai coding assistants stack or rent it.
OpenHands
Self-hosted, sandboxed coding agents — the whole stack runs on infrastructure you control.
OpenHands (MIT, formerly OpenDevin) is the option for people whose actual requirement is "this has to run on infrastructure I control." It is a self-hosted control centre for coding agents: a browser-based Agent Canvas plus a backend server you start locally or on your own VM, with agents working inside a sandboxed environment that has its own shell, filesystem and browser. Agents can edit code, run commands, call APIs and browse the web — real engineering tasks rather than completions. The project sells a managed OpenHands Cloud and licenses a self-hosted enterprise edition, but the core is MIT and self-hosting costs nothing beyond your own model usage. At 82.5k stars it is the most established self-hosted agent platform available.
GitHub Copilot
The polished commercial option at half the price — and for many readers the honest answer.
If what actually prompted the comparison is price rather than openness, GitHub Copilot is the straightforward answer: Pro is $10/month against Cursor Pro's $20, and there is a real free tier with 2,000 code completions a month for individual developers who don't have Copilot through an organisation. It does inline completion, chat, agent mode and a CLI, and it installs into the IDE you already use rather than asking you to adopt a different editor. Worth knowing precisely: the Copilot Chat client for VS Code is MIT-licensed and its code now lives in the main VS Code repository, but the service and models behind it are proprietary and hosted. There is no self-host path and no local-model option — that's the trade, stated plainly, and it is the right trade for plenty of people.
Side by side
6 points of comparison, every one read from a verified field. Green marks the side that wins a row outright. A dash means we do not hold that fact — never that it is zero.
| OpenHands | GitHub Copilot | |
|---|---|---|
| Sovereignty ScoreOur transparent 0–100 composite for data ownership and exit cost. | 91 | 28 |
| Open source | Yes | No |
| Self-hostable | Yes | No |
| Local-first data | Yes | No |
| License | MIT | Proprietary (hosted service; MIT-licensed VS Code chat client) |
| Pricing | Free and open source (MIT) to self-host — you pay only your model provider. Managed OpenHands Cloud and a licensed enterprise self-host are the paid tiers. | Free tier (2,000 completions/month); Pro $10/mo; Pro+ $39/mo; Max $100/mo; Business $19/seat/mo; Enterprise $39/seat/mo. Verified on GitHub's own plans documentation 2026-07-29. |
OpenHands edges it on the Sovereignty Score, but the right pick depends on the trade-offs below.
OpenHands
Strengths
- +Genuinely self-hosted: server, sandbox and workspace all sit on your own infrastructure
- +Sandboxed execution — the agent gets a container, not unrestricted access to your laptop
- +Browser UI suits longer autonomous runs and reviewing what an agent actually did
- +MIT-licensed, 82.5k stars, committed to daily
Trade-offs
- −The heaviest setup here — Docker and real RAM, not a two-minute install
- −Long autonomous runs consume a lot of tokens; set a budget before you let one loose
- −Multi-user, RBAC and the richer integrations live in the paid Cloud and enterprise tiers
- −Not an in-editor experience — you leave your IDE to drive it, and there's no inline completion
GitHub Copilot
Strengths
- +Half the price of a Cursor Pro seat, with a genuinely free tier to test on
- +Nothing to run or configure — it installs into the IDE you already use
- +Keeps inline Tab-style completion, which none of the open agents above provide
- +Very low switching cost — your code is just files, so uninstalling leaves nothing to migrate
Trade-offs
- −Fully hosted and proprietary: no self-hosting, no local models, no offline use
- −Chat, agent and CLI usage draws on monthly credits; only completions are unlimited on paid plans
- −You are choosing a Microsoft/GitHub-operated service, with whatever that means for your data policy
- −The Sovereignty Score of 28 reflects a closed hosted service — a transparency lens, not a verdict on quality
Which one fits you
The trade-offs above, turned into a decision. Find the line that describes your team.
Choose OpenHands
if you want the source and the option to fork it, and you would rather run it on your own hardware, and your data should stay on machines you control.
Choose GitHub Copilot
if half the price of a Cursor Pro seat, with a genuinely free tier to test on.
Neither, yet
if both carry a real cost you should weigh first — the heaviest setup here — Docker and real RAM, not a two-minute install, and fully hosted and proprietary: no self-hosting, no local models, no offline use. If either of those is a dealbreaker for your team, the shortlist is wrong rather than the choice.
OpenHands vs GitHub Copilot — common questions
Is OpenHands a better fit than GitHub Copilot for ai coding assistants?
It depends on what you are optimising for, and the honest split is this: OpenHands scores 91 to GitHub Copilot's 28 on data ownership and exit cost, so it is the safer choice if you care about being able to leave. GitHub Copilot earns its place on a different axis — half the price of a Cursor Pro seat, with a genuinely free tier to test on. Neither is a wrong answer for every team; the table above is the actual comparison.
What happens if we want to switch later?
OpenHands keeps its data local or in open formats, so leaving is an export rather than a negotiation. GitHub Copilot keeps your data on its own infrastructure, which is the part to plan for: confirm the export path before you commit, not when you are already trying to leave.
Can I self-host OpenHands?
OpenHands can be self-hosted; GitHub Copilot cannot, so it stays on the vendor's infrastructure whatever you do.
Are OpenHands and GitHub Copilot both alternatives to Cursor?
Yes — both appear in our Cursor comparison, which is why they are worth putting side by side. People usually arrive here already having decided to move off Cursor and now choosing between the two replacements, which is a narrower and much easier question.
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Facts verified 2026-07-29. Licenses and pricing change — spotted something out of date? That's a correction we want.