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OpenWork Alternative
OpenWork Alternative

OpenWork limitations: where the open-source desktop app stops for a company

OpenWork's limits start with its shape: it is a desktop app that runs on one person's machine, so shared governance across a team is a separate product and a paid plan past five people. Kortix is the open-source AI Operating System for the team that needs one system it owns.

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Where a desktop app stops, next to Kortix

The team-level differences, from where work runs to what you own.

Open source

  • KortixOur recommendation
    YesOpen source. Read it, fork it, audit it.
  • OpenWork
    PartlyDesktop app yes; org control plane paid past 5 people.
  • Claude Cowork
    NoNo.

Where the work runs

  • KortixOur recommendation
    Kortix Cloud, your VPC, or your own on-prem network.
  • OpenWork
    On one person's desktop.
  • Claude Cowork
    Anthropic's cloud, or your Bedrock, Google Cloud, Foundry.

Where configuration lives

Shared governance

  • KortixOur recommendation
    Per-resource permissions for people and agents. Roles, groups, and an audit trail.
  • OpenWork
    Through OpenWork Den, a separate control plane.
  • Claude Cowork
    Admin controls and spend limits on Team and Enterprise.

Many agents at once

  • KortixOur recommendation
    Thousands of agents in parallel, each on its own cloud computer.
  • OpenWork
    One desktop at a time, per person.
  • Claude Cowork
    Managed by the vendor; web and mobile in beta.

Recommended for

  • KortixOur recommendation
    A team that needs one governed system it owns.
  • OpenWork
    One person or a small team on local files.
  • Claude Cowork
    A paid Claude seat for knowledge work.
The record

One system, mapped

Exhibitone system, mapped
Processes: sessions, one sandbox and one branch per sessionFile system: the project repoPrograms: agents and skillsDrivers: connectorsScheduler: triggersPermissions: roles, grants and connector policiesUpdates: change requests
Source: https://kortix.com/docs

How each part of an operating system maps to a Kortix feature, from the Kortix docs.

Where a local-first desktop app stops

OpenWork runs on one person's machine, so the agents, the files and the session live with that person. That is fine for an individual. The problem appears when two people, then twenty, need to work the same way from the same configuration, because there is no shared server that every person's agent runs against by default.

Team features arrive through a separate, paid control plane

OpenWork does have a team layer. OpenWork Den is the control plane for publishing capabilities, managing access and setting desktop policies, and it is what turns the desktop app into something an organization manages. The code is public, but production use needs an OpenWork subscription, free only for organizations of up to five people (OpenWork pricing, checked October 2026). Sharing skills and managing people is real, and beyond a small team it is a paid layer rather than part of the free app.

Governance across people is the harder gap

Sharing a skill is not the same as governing work. A team that runs agents across the business needs per-resource permissions for people and agents, roles, groups, and an audit trail. A desktop application does not provide those across people by itself, because the record lives on each machine. This is the point where a local app stops being enough, and it is why teams look at self-hosting a system they control.

What a team that outgrows the desktop needs

Kortix is the open-source AI Operating System: your agents, their skills, your company memory, and every connector live in one git repo you own, and each session runs on its own cloud computer. That answers all three limits at once. The configuration is files in a repository, shared and versioned by default. Sessions run in the cloud, so the work does not depend on whose laptop is open. The governance a large team needs is part of the platform: per-resource permissions for people and agents, roles, groups, and an audit trail, plus approval gates you set, off until you set them.

The scale difference is structural. Kortix runs thousands of agents in parallel on one config, each on its own cloud computer, and you can run it on Kortix Cloud, in your VPC, or on your own on-prem network. A company that started on a desktop app and now needs many people and many agents is solving a different problem, and it is the problem an AI Operating System is built for.

OpenWork limitations, answered

The questions teams ask once the desktop app is in daily use.

  1. What are the main OpenWork limitations for a team?

    It runs on one person's machine, so shared governance across people is not part of the free app. The organization control plane is a separate product, and production use needs a subscription past five people.

  2. Which parts of OpenWork are open source?

    The desktop app is open source and free to use locally. The organization control plane, OpenWork Den, publishes its code publicly, but production use needs a paid OpenWork subscription past five people.

  3. What does a team use when it outgrows a desktop app?

    Kortix, the open-source AI Operating System, where the agents, skills, company memory and connectors are files in one git repo you own and each session runs on its own cloud computer.

  4. Can the shared part be self-hosted?

    OpenWork's control plane can be self-hosted and is free for organizations of up to five people. Kortix self-hosts for free on your own infrastructure, or runs on Kortix Cloud.

Own the system the agents run on.

Start on Kortix Cloud, or self-host it for free.

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