AI tools · Updated October 2026
Claude Code is Anthropic's coding agent that runs in the terminal. If you would rather own your tools, here are 7 open source alternatives to Claude Code, ranked by GitHub stars. Each one is free to use under its license, and you can read, change, and often self-host the code.
The most popular is OpenCode with 219.5k stars, and the most recently updated is Qwen Code, with a commit on Oct 21, 2026.
| Project | Stars | License | Language | Last commit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 OpenCode | 219.5k | MIT | TypeScript | Oct 21, 2026 |
 Codex CLI | 130.3k | Apache-2.0 | Rust | Oct 21, 2026 |
 Gemini CLI | 107.5k | Apache-2.0 | TypeScript | Oct 21, 2026 |
 Cline | 70.7k | Apache-2.0 | TypeScript | Oct 21, 2026 |
 Goose | 55.5k | Apache-2.0 | Rust | Oct 21, 2026 |
 Aider | 49.7k | Apache-2.0 | Python | May 22, 2026 |
 Qwen Code | 28.6k | Apache-2.0 | TypeScript | Oct 21, 2026 |
by anomalyco
The open source coding agent.
by openai
Lightweight coding agent that runs in your terminal
by google-gemini
An open-source AI agent that brings the power of Gemini directly into your terminal.
by cline
Autonomous coding agent as an SDK, IDE extension, or CLI assistant.
by aaif-goose
an open source, extensible AI agent that goes beyond code suggestions - install, execute, edit, and test with any LLM
by Aider-AI
aider is AI pair programming in your terminal
by QwenLM
An open-source AI coding agent that lives in your terminal.
By GitHub stars, OpenCode is the most popular open source alternative to Claude Code right now, with 219.5k stars, followed by Codex CLI and Gemini CLI. The best fit depends on your setup, so compare their licenses, languages, and recent activity in the table above.
Yes. All 7 projects on this page are open source, so the software itself is free to use, study, and change. Some of them also sell a hosted version or paid support.
Qwen Code (last commit Oct 21, 2026), OpenCode (last commit Oct 21, 2026), and Cline (last commit Oct 21, 2026) have the most recent commits. Licenses on this list include MIT and Apache-2.0.
