Sinatra vs OpenHands
The open-source agent platform from All Hands AI. Compared here on OpenHands Cloud, the hosted tier. The same code also runs on your own machine.
This is the closest fight on the list, because OpenHands already does the two things Sinatra usually wins on: your own key works, and models are billed at cost. What is left is narrower. OpenHands is open source and you can run it yourself; Sinatra is hosted only. Sinatra assigns from Linear and takes a Claude or ChatGPT subscription on its own cloud; OpenHands needs a hand-registered webhook for Linear and needs the CLI's login already on the machine. If you want to self-host, use OpenHands.
- Yes means the vendor's own app starts a run from the issue itself, with nothing to commit to the repo first. Sinatra's trigger is the Sinatra label that ships with the GitHub App install (`sinatraai` on the hosted app). Partial means either that a workflow file and an API-key secret have to be added per repository first, or that the mention only works on pull requests, or that starting from an issue needs a trigger or automation you configure yourself.
- Yes means assigning the ticket to the agent in Linear starts the run. Partial means the run starts some other way: an attachment link you click, or a trigger you configure yourself against Linear's webhooks. Assignment on its own does nothing.
- Yes means a documented HTTP API or MCP server starts a run on the vendor's hosted agent from a task the caller writes, so a script, a CI job, or an MCP client can hand off work and follow it to a pull request. Partial means only the vendor's CLI can start such a run, or the API only fires an automation saved ahead of time, or it is enabled for selected organizations only. Local agent sessions, and MCP servers that only read docs or tickets, don't count. Creating, labeling, or assigning an issue through a tracker's API, so that a tracker trigger or a saved automation picks it up, doesn't count either. Sinatra's MCP server takes an OAuth sign-in from Claude Code, Cursor, claude.ai or ChatGPT, or a personal access token; the HTTP API and the `sinatra` CLI take the token; and every run happens on Sinatra's hosted agent.
- Yes means a changes-requested review is enough on its own: Sinatra reworks the branch and pushes the follow-up commit with no re-trigger and no mention. Partial means the agent acts only when it is @-mentioned in the thread, or only while its original session is still open.
- Yes means your own provider API key runs the agent everywhere the product runs it. Partial means keys work on some surfaces but not the one being compared here, either because the vendor documents them as local-CLI-and-desktop only, or because it never documents them covering its cloud agent at all.
- Yes means a Claude Pro/Max or ChatGPT subscription you already pay for authenticates the run on the vendor's hosted cloud. Partial means it works only where that CLI's login already sits on the machine: your own laptop or a self-hosted backend, not a clean cloud sandbox, or that a linked subscription pays only for one provider's share of a hosted run while the vendor bills the rest.
- Yes means the vendor never charges you for model use itself: it runs on a key or subscription you pay a model provider for, or model use is included in a flat plan and capped by a rate limit or task quota rather than charged. When the vendor is itself the model provider, paying its own API rates on your own key counts as paying your provider. Partial means the vendor bills model use unless you bring your own key on the surface compared here. No means the vendor bills model use, as tokens, credits, or units, at cost or marked up, including usage past an included allowance. Sinatra runs on your own Claude or ChatGPT subscription or API key and never bills for model usage.
- Both halves have to be published: the plan price, and the rate for work past the plan. A published seat price sitting on top of an undisclosed credit, compute unit, or quota size is partial.
- Yes means the free tier states its limits as numbers. Sinatra's Free plan is 1 task at a time, plus 1 queued with no daily limit and no card, on your own subscription or API key; each request runs for up to 60 minutes, and if it needs longer Sinatra stops, keeps the changes, and picks up when you reply. Partial means a free plan exists but its limits are not published, or are published in a unit whose size isn't. No means there is no free tier, or the free tier leaves out the agent compared here.
- Yes means the vendor supplies model access and bills for or includes that usage. Sinatra requires your own workspace API key or personal subscription on every tier, including existing and paid accounts, and does not bill model tokens.
- Yes means an editor plugin or a desktop app; partial means a terminal CLI and no plugin or app of the vendor's own inside an editor. Sinatra is partial: the `sinatra` CLI, and an MCP server that Claude Code, Cursor, claude.ai, ChatGPT and other MCP clients can call, hand work to the hosted agent, which works in its own sandbox and comes back as a pull request. There is no editor extension, and the agent never runs on your machine. If you want an assistant working inside your editor, that is a real reason to pick one of these instead, and several teams run both.
- Yes means mentioning the agent in a Slack channel or thread starts a run on the vendor's hosted agent. Sinatra's Slack app is connected once per workspace by an owner or admin, on every plan: mention it in a channel and it works in that thread, posting its progress and answer there and opening a pull request when the request needs code. Follow-ups in the thread continue the task.
- Yes means you can run the agent on infrastructure you control, or the source is open. Partial means execution or inference can be pointed at your own account or your own machines while the product itself stays the vendor's and stays closed. Sinatra is hosted only; there is no self-managed build.
Competitor facts were read off each vendor's own documentation and pricing pages on September 3, 2026. The “Start a hosted run over API or MCP” row was read on October 13, 2026. Sinatra's terms reflect the current own-credential requirement.
How you start it
- Add the Sinatra label to a GitHub issue. The label ships with the GitHub App install and is named after the app (
sinatraaion the hosted one) - Assign a Linear ticket to Sinatra, or @-mention it in a comment
- Mention @Sinatra in a Slack channel; it works in that thread, and follow-ups in the thread continue the task
- Start a task from your terminal with the
sinatraCLI, from Claude Code, Cursor, claude.ai or ChatGPT over MCP, or over the HTTP API. It runs on Sinatra's hosted agent, not on your machine
- Label a GitHub issue
openhands, or comment starting with@openhands - @openhands on a pull request
- The OpenHands Cloud web app and the Slack app
- CLI, VS Code, JetBrains, and Zed over ACP
- The OpenHands Cloud API, with an API key (read October 13, 2026)
openhands cloud -t "…"from the OpenHands CLI, afteropenhands login(read October 13, 2026)
Free: 1 task at a time, plus 1 queued, no daily limit. Bring your own Claude or ChatGPT subscription, or an API key. On Free, each request runs for up to 60 minutes. If it needs longer, Sinatra stops, keeps the changes, and picks up when you reply. No card. Paid plans are one flat monthly price for the whole workspace, however many people are in it: Pro $20 (3 tasks at a time, plus 10 queued), Team $99 (10 tasks at a time, plus 25 queued), Scale $249 (25 tasks at a time, plus 100 queued). Enterprise is custom. Sinatra never bills for model usage.
Sinatra pricing →The open-source build is free to run yourself. Hosted Individual is free with 10 conversations a day and bills model usage at cost with no markup, or runs on your own key; Enterprise is custom.
OpenHands pricing page →How you start a task
On GitHub these two are nearly identical, and neither wants a workflow file in your repository, so judge them on the pull requests rather than the trigger.
Linear is where they part. Sinatra installs a Linear app and you assign the ticket. OpenHands documents Linear under custom webhooks: fetch a signing secret, run a curl command yourself to register the hook, then build an automation on it. That is more flexible than an assignment and it is also a configuration project, with no "assign to OpenHands" in the Linear UI at the end of it.
On pull requests, OpenHands acts when @-mentioned. Sinatra treats a changes-requested review as the instruction and pushes the follow-up commit.
What it costs, in dollars
OpenHands is the one competitor here whose cost model Sinatra does not beat. Free locally, free hosted with a published cap, models "at cost, with no markup." That is an honest price list and we are not going to pretend otherwise.
So the comparison is not about model markup: OpenHands bills models at cost unless you bring a key, and Sinatra never bills them. It is a straight question of what the plan buys: a service somebody else operates, patches, and gets paged for. If you would rather own that, OpenHands hands you the source and you keep the twenty dollars.
Where Sinatra wins
Linear is an assignment, not a webhook. Assigning a ticket is something a product manager will do; registering a webhook with curl is not. For a team running its board in Linear, that is the difference between everyone using the agent and only the person who set it up using it.
Your subscription also works on the hosted cloud. Connect Claude Pro or Max, or a ChatGPT plan, and Sinatra's cloud runs on it. OpenHands can drive those CLIs over ACP, but its own docs are clear that the login is picked up from the machine the agent server runs on, so on OpenHands Cloud you are back to an API key. If the appeal of bring-your-own-key was using the subscription you already bought, that distinction is the whole thing.
Rework needs no mention, and there is nothing to operate: no container, no model gateway, no upgrade to schedule.
Where OpenHands wins
It is open source and you can self-host it. Sinatra has no answer to that at all. You can read the agent loop, patch it, run it air-gapped, and keep running it if All Hands AI disappears tomorrow. For a team with a compliance requirement or a preference for owning its tools, that ends the conversation, and it should.
The free tier is also generous for exploration: ten hosted conversations a day, plus an unlimited local build. It runs in your editor through VS Code, JetBrains, and Zed over ACP, where Sinatra offers no editor extension: its CLI and MCP server only start a task on its hosted agent. And it has grown well past issue-to-PR into scheduled tasks, channel monitors, custom webhooks, a Slack app, and an SDK for building your own agent on the same machinery.
Looking for an OpenHands alternative?
The honest version is short. Most people looking are not unhappy with the pricing. They are looking at the cost of operating it, or they want the tracker to be the interface rather than a webhook they maintain.
What Sinatra replaces is the configuration. Install a GitHub App and a Linear app, connect a credential, assign a ticket. No gateway, no automation to author, no server to patch. In exchange you give up the source, self-hosting, and the editor integrations, and you pay $20 a month for the whole workspace on Pro for not operating any of it.
If you are here because you want to stop paying for a hosted agent, you are searching in the wrong direction. OpenHands' local build is the cheapest option in this market and Sinatra does not beat it.
Switching, or running both
Two different labels, two branches, two pull requests, no merges, so a repository can carry both installs without either reacting to the other's work. Take five real tickets, hand the same five to each, and read the ten pull requests. Both free tiers cover their own half, so this costs an afternoon and no money.
Questions people ask about OpenHands and Sinatra
Is OpenHands free?
The open-source build is free on your own hardware, and the hosted Individual plan is free with a published cap of 10 conversations a day. You still pay for models, with your own key or through OpenHands at cost.
Does OpenHands work with Linear?
Not as a native assignment. Its docs treat Linear as a custom webhook you register yourself with a curl command, then wire into an automation.
Can OpenHands run on my Claude Pro or Max subscription?
Partly. It drives Claude Code or Codex over ACP using a login already on the machine, and its own docs note a clean cloud sandbox has none, so OpenHands Cloud needs an API key.
Which should a small team pick?
If someone wants to own the infrastructure, OpenHands, and it is not close. If nobody wants to run a service and the backlog is in Linear, Sinatra.
Where these facts came from
Every mark on this page comes from OpenHands's own documentation and pricing pages, not a third-party roundup: read on September 3, 2026, except the “Start a hosted run over API or MCP” row, read on October 13, 2026, as were the ways to start a run tagged with that date. Sinatra's side of this page was last updated on October 15, 2026. If something here is out of date or wrong, tell us and we will fix the page.