Is OpenWork open source? The self-hosting, terms and pricing questions, answered
OpenWork is open source, with one split to know: its desktop app and core are free to use, while the organization control plane ships under commercial terms and needs a subscription past five users. For a company, Kortix is the open-source AI Operating System, with agents, skills, memory and connectors in one git repo you own.
Self-host in three commands
kortix self-host init --domain kortix.example.comkortix self-host startkortix self-host statusFrom the Kortix self-hosting docs. Point DNS at the box and open ports 80 and 443 first; the sandbox provider key is the one credential the stack cannot start without.
How OpenWork's terms are split
OpenWork is open source, and its repository documents a directory split. Everything outside the ee/ directory is free and open source: the desktop app and the core platform, free for any use. Everything under ee/ is OpenWork Den, the organization control plane, which ships under its own commercial terms. That code stays public so a team can audit what it deploys. Production use then needs an OpenWork subscription once an organization passes five users. The repository lists two further exceptions to the subscription, a 30-day evaluation at any size and work in development or testing. Each ee/ release converts to permissive terms two years after publication (OpenWork's repository). The OpenWork pricing page lists the plans and the self-host terms.
Why one open-source platform answers the company case
A desktop app carries one person's work. A company needs what a desktop cannot hold: memory every agent shares, connectors scoped to each agent, permissions for people and agents, sessions that start on a schedule, and one gate between agent work and the live configuration.
Kortix is the open-source AI Operating System, and it holds those parts in one place. Agents, skills, company memory and connectors live in one git repo you own, so you can grep the whole company, diff any change and roll one part back. One isolated sandbox per session, and every session works on its own branch. Finished work reaches the default branch as a change request a person reads as a diff. Any model provider runs with your own keys, and the same platform self-hosts for free on a laptop, a VPS, in your VPC or on-prem, or runs on managed cloud. The OpenWork vs Kortix comparison takes the two side by side, and the code is at Kortix on GitHub.
Frequently asked questions
Is OpenWork open source?
Yes, with one split. The desktop app and core platform are free and open source, while OpenWork Den, the organization control plane, ships under its own commercial terms: the code is public, production use needs a subscription past five users, and evaluation and testing stay free (OpenWork's repository).
Is there an open-source alternative to OpenWork for a company?
Yes: Kortix, the open-source AI Operating System. OpenWork is a desktop app with a control plane over it; Kortix puts the whole company in one git repo you own, with a session per task on its own isolated sandbox and a change request a person reads before work lands. The two are compared on the OpenWork vs Kortix page.
Can I self-host OpenWork, and can I self-host Kortix?
Both, at different weights. OpenWork's desktop app runs locally with no account, and its control plane self-hosts through a Docker Compose stack the self-hosting docs mark for evaluation, with production pointed at Kubernetes and a managed MySQL. Kortix self-hosts the whole platform as one Docker Compose stack on a laptop, a VPS, in your VPC or on-prem (Kortix self-hosting docs).
How do Kortix, OpenWork and Claude Cowork compare?
Kortix is the open-source AI Operating System for a whole company, with the configuration in one git repo you own and every session on its own isolated sandbox. OpenWork is an open-source desktop app with a control plane on commercial terms, and Claude Cowork is closed, included from Anthropic's $17 a month Pro plan (Claude Cowork, checked October 2026). The full comparison goes dimension by dimension.
What does OpenWork cost past five users?
OpenWork's Team plan is $10 per seat per month, and the five-user free tier covers the self-hosted control plane (OpenWork pricing, checked October 2026). Kortix self-hosts for free at any organization size, and managed cloud starts with a Free plan of 200 credits a month and one project, then $40 per seat per month with 2,500 pooled credits per seat (Kortix pricing, checked October 2026).
Can we bring an existing Claude Cowork setup?
OpenWork documents a direct path: skills, Claude-compatible plugins and MCP servers carry over from Cowork (OpenWork's repository). Kortix connects the same open standards: 3,000+ apps in a click, plus MCP, OpenAPI, Postman, GraphQL and raw HTTP, and agents, skills, memory and connector configuration stay as files in the repo you own.
Run the whole company from one repo you own
Kortix is the open-source AI Operating System. Self-host free, or start on managed cloud.
Open source · Any model, your keys · Self-host, VPC, or on-prem