Bolt.new vs OpenHands
A side-by-side comparison of capabilities, autonomy, integrations, and pricing to help you choose.
Short answer: choose Bolt.new if you want prompt, edit, and deploy full-stack web apps in the browser (Supervised agent, freemium); choose OpenHands if you want open-source ai software engineer that edits, runs, and tests code in a sandbox (Supervised agent, freemium).
| Bolt.new | OpenHands | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Prompt, edit, and deploy full-stack web apps in the browser | Open-source AI software engineer that edits, runs, and tests code in a sandbox |
| Type | agent | framework |
| Autonomy | Supervised agent | Supervised agent |
| Pricing | freemium · Free (1M tokens/mo); Pro from $25/mo | freemium · Free (open source, self-hosted); Cloud free tier with usage caps |
| Best for | consumers, developers, smb | developers, enterprise |
| Deployment | saas | self-hosted, saas, api, on-prem |
| Modalities | text, code | text, code, browser, api |
| Models | claude, model-agnostic | model-agnostic, claude, gpt, gemini, open-source |
| Protocols | rest-api | mcp, rest-api, function-calling |
| Integrations | Netlify, Supabase, GitHub, Expo | GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, Slack, Jira, Linear |
| Capabilities | 3 documented | 4 documented |
Bolt.new
- +Full dev environment runs in the browser via WebContainers, with the AI controlling filesystem, terminal, and server
- +Generates true full-stack apps (not just UI) and can deploy via Bolt Cloud
- +No local setup; fast for prototyping and iterating by chatting
- -Token-based usage cost can rise quickly on complex or long-running builds
- -Output needs human review and iteration; it is not a hands-off autonomous engineer
OpenHands
- +Fully open source (MIT core) and model-agnostic with no vendor lock-in; self-hostable for privacy
- +Genuinely agentic: edits, runs, and tests code in a sandbox and opens PRs, not just autocomplete
- +Large open-source community plus a mature SDK, REST/WebSocket API, and MCP support
- -Open-source build is single-user with no built-in auth/isolation; teams need the Enterprise tier
- -Output must be reviewed and tested, and open-ended tasks can burn many LLM calls
Which should you choose?
Bolt.new is prompt, edit, and deploy full-stack web apps in the browser, best for consumers, developers, smb. OpenHands is open-source ai software engineer that edits, runs, and tests code in a sandbox, best for developers, enterprise. The right choice depends on the autonomy level you want, your existing integrations, and your budget, all compared above.