# CoWork-OS vs OpenClaw

> Side-by-side comparison of two projects in the OpenClaw ecosystem.

Canonical HTML: https://shelldex.com/compare/cowork-os-vs-openclaw/
JSON: https://shelldex.com/api/compare/cowork-os-vs-openclaw.json

| Field | CoWork-OS | OpenClaw |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Tagline | Security-first operating system for personal AI agents | The OG self-hosted AI super-agent |
| Language | typescript | typescript |
| Status | active | active |
| Stars | 298 | 372k |
| Forks | 49 | 77049 |
| Open issues | 4 | 7041 |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Last commit | 2026-05-14T09:01:06Z | 2026-05-15T16:50:31Z |
| 7d growth | 21 | 3106 |
| MCP support | no | yes |
| Requires LLM | yes | yes |
| Platforms | server, messaging | server |
| Categories | self-hosted, messaging, security | reference, self-hosted |
| Health score | 90/100 | 95/100 |
| Leaderboard rank | #38 | #1 |

## Key differences

- OpenClaw has 1249x more stars (372k vs 298), indicating significantly broader adoption.
- OpenClaw is growing faster with +3.1k stars this week vs +21 for CoWork-OS.
- OpenClaw has MCP (Model Context Protocol) support while CoWork-OS does not.
- CoWork-OS focuses on messaging, security while OpenClaw targets reference.

## Descriptions

### CoWork-OS

Multi-channel (WhatsApp, Telegram, Discord, Slack, iMessage), multi-provider (Claude, GPT, Gemini, Ollama) personal AI agent OS. Fully self-hosted with a security-first architecture. TypeScript, MIT licensed.

### OpenClaw

The original. Self-hosted AI super-agent platform. Formerly Clawdbot, then Moltbot. The project that started it all.