Try “Claude Code skills”, “MCP servers for Cursor” or “Codex” · Esc to close

Amp vs Orca (2026): Which Vibe Coding App Is Better?

Both are popular terminal coding agents. Here is how Amp and Orca stack up on price, strengths and weaknesses, and which one we would pick.

Amp

Frontier coding agent for the terminal and editor, from the makers of Sourcegraph

8.2 /10

Pricing: Free plan, paid from $20/mo

Pros

  • Strong results on hard, multi-step tasks
  • Shared threads for team review
  • Subagents and AGENTS.md built in

Cons

  • Usage-based costs add up on large tasks
  • Fewer configuration knobs by design
Visit Amp ↗

Orca

An ADE for running fleets of coding agents in parallel worktrees, from desktop or mobile

8.0 /10

Pricing: Open source

Pros

  • Runs multiple coding agents in parallel isolated worktrees with diff comparison
  • Free, open source (MIT), backed by Y Combinator
  • Mobile companion apps for monitoring/steering agents remotely

Cons

  • No hosted/managed tier documented — you bring your own agent subscriptions
  • Extremely fast recent star growth is worth watching, even though the activity looks organic
Visit Orca ↗

Amp vs Orca at a glance

AmpOrca
Editor score8.2 / 108.0 / 10
Pricing modelFreemiumOpen source
Starting price$20/moFree
Reader upvotes00
Best forterminal, agentade, parallel-agents, claude-code
Agent Skills supportYesNo
Subagents supportYesNo
MCP supportYesNo
AGENTS.md supportYesNo
Plugins supportYesNo
Hooks supportNoNo
Rules supportNoNo
Agent skills in this directory470
Subagents & agents in this directory93
MCP servers in this directory720

Our pick

Amp edges it with a score of 8.2 versus 8.0. Amp is the better fit if you value: strong results on hard, multi-step tasks, shared threads for team review. Choose Orca instead if you need: runs multiple coding agents in parallel isolated worktrees with diff comparison, free, open source (mit), backed by y combinator.

Other terminal coding agents to consider

Full ranking →

OpenAI Codex Freemium

OpenAI's coding agent for the terminal, IDE and cloud, included with ChatGPT plans

★ 128k · +1.2k this week

9.1 Visit ↗

OpenCode Open source

Open-source terminal coding agent that works with any model provider

★ 211k · +1.4k this week

8.4 Visit ↗

Qwen Code Open source

Open-source AI coding agent from Alibaba's Qwen team, for terminal, IDE and desktop

★ 28k · +140 this week

8.0 Visit ↗