Claude Cowork alternatives — the whole field, not just the open-source ones.
Anthropic's Claude Cowork is a desktop AI agent that works on your files. It is closed-source, Anthropic-model-only, and paid. Most "alternatives" lists cover either only open-source projects or only one vendor. This hub compares the entire field — MIT-licensed projects like OpenWork, source-available platforms like Kortix/Suna, and closed agents like Cursor and Perplexity Computer — by the four things that decide the choice: licence, where it runs, model flexibility, and isolation.
What Claude Cowork is — and its four constraints
Claude Cowork lives inside the Claude desktop app, gets access to a folder you grant, and can read, create and organise files and take browser actions. Its constraints are the reason people look for alternatives: closed source (you cannot audit it), single-vendor models (Anthropic only), no self-host, and a paid subscription.
Pick by constraint
OpenWork (MIT)
The most visible open-source Cowork alternative, built on OpenCode. Runs locally, 50+ models via your own keys. Also see the open-source-only hub.
Kortix / Suna
Source-available (Elastic 2.0) agent-management system: agents, skills, memory and connectors as files in a git repo you own, sandboxed per session, human-reviewed merges. Self-host or managed cloud.
Cursor / Perplexity Computer / ChatGPT agent
Closed, cloud-only, strong at code or research respectively — the trade is no self-host and no source.
The one-line decision rule
If your blocker is licensing or model lock-in, filter to the open-source and source-available rows. If your blocker is capability today and you accept cloud-only, a closed agent is fine. The comparison table marks each row so the filter is obvious.