claude-code-routervsOpenClaw
Generated from the two spec rows. Green marks the better value where a spec has a clear direction. Everything else is just different.
claude-code-router
musistudio · Agent harness
OSSMCP
Panel
7.00 spec wins
- Reliability
- 6.3
- Usefulness
- 7.7
- Cost
- 8.3
- Longevity
- 5.8
“Its main job is pointing Claude Code at a model that is not Claude, and it is named after both of them.”
OpenClaw
OpenClaw Foundation · Agent harness
OSSMCP
Panel
6.85 spec wins
- Reliability
- 6.0
- Usefulness
- 6.8
- Cost
- 7.3
- Longevity
- 7.2
“Warelay, Clawdbot, Moltbot, OpenClaw: three renames in ten weeks, one of them courtesy of Anthropic's trademark lawyers.”
Spec by spec
| Spec | claude-code-router | OpenClaw |
|---|---|---|
| Architecture | ||
| Category | Agent harness | Agent harness |
| Runs | local | local, sandbox |
| Platforms | macos, linux, windows, web | macos, linux, windows |
| Context window | not documented | not documented |
| Protocols | ||
| MCP client | Yes | Yes |
| MCP server | No | Yes |
| Capabilities | ||
| Runs terminal commands | NoCCR is a routing proxy; the agent CLI behind it does the executing. | Yes |
| Multi-file edits | No | Yes |
| Git operations | No | No |
| Browser control | No | Yes |
| Sandboxed execution | YesA documented docker compose deployment runs the router itself in a container; it does not sandbox the agents that call it. | Yes |
| Multi-agent orchestration | YesCCR fronts many agent CLIs at once (Claude Code, Codex, Grok CLI, Kimi CLI, Kilo Code, OpenCode, ZCode) but does not itself orchestrate agents against a task. | Yes |
| Headless / CI mode | No | No |
| Models | ||
| Backbone | OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, OpenRouter, DeepSeek, SiliconFlow, Moonshot Kimi, Mistral, Z.AI, Bailian | OpenAI, Anthropic, OpenRouter, GitHub Copilot, Ollama, LM Studio, vLLM, llama.cpp |
| Bring your own model | Yes | Yes |
| Local models | YesAny OpenAI-compatible endpoint can be added as a custom provider with its own base URL, which covers a locally hosted server; no named Ollama or LM Studio preset is documented. | Yes |
| Cost | ||
| Pricing model | byok | byok |
| Starts at | $0/mo | $0/mo |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Bring your own key | Yes | Yes |
| Openness | ||
| Open source | Yes | Yes |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| GitHub stars | 37,511 | 391,182 |
Which one would each critic pick
| Critic | claude-code-router | OpenClaw | Pick |
|---|---|---|---|
| El Juez | — | — | not enough reviews |
| El Amigo | 7.3 | 7.3 | no preference |
| El Crítico | 6.3 | 6.5 | OpenClaw — Sandboxing is off by default, the docs call it not a perfect security boundary even when on, and bind mounts walk straight through it. |
| El Profesor | 7.0 | 7.0 | no preference |
| La Inversora | 6.5 | 6.3 | claude-code-router — The entire product is an arbitrage on the gap between what agents charge and what tokens cost, which makes its lifespan a function of somebody else's pricing page. |
| La Jefa | 6.5 | 5.3 | claude-code-router — Free for sixty, and the credential pool with key rotation is the first thing on this board that looks like something a platform team would actually want. |
| El Hacker | 8.8 | 8.8 | no preference |
Picks are derived from each critic's own scores. Humans vote on matchups on the duels page.