Best Superset Alternatives (2026)

The best Superset alternative for most Mac developers is Agentastic. It works the same way, with one git worktree per task and the agent's real CLI in a terminal, but it's a native Swift app, and remote SSH machines, cloud agents, scheduled runs, Linear issues, and an iPhone app come in the free version instead of a paid tier. If you need Windows, Linux, or an OSI open-source license, choose Orca; if you'd rather chat with agents and hand long runs to managed cloud sandboxes, choose Conductor.

A note on names: this guide covers Superset, the coding-agent workspace at superset.sh. It has nothing to do with Apache Superset, the open-source BI and dashboarding tool.

Agentastic is our product. To keep this fair, we verified each statement on October 5, 2026, using the vendors' own documentation, pricing pages, and repositories, all linked under Sources.

Superset alternatives at a glance#

Why people look for a Superset alternative#

Superset ships fast and covers a lot of ground, so most people who leave are reacting to its pricing, platforms, or license rather than missing features:

• The extras are on Pro. The Free plan is limited to one user working with local workspaces. Everything else (remote access, automations, Linear, Slack, and the mobile app) needs Pro, at $20 per seat per month or $15 on an annual plan.
• Windows and Linux are not supported yet. Superset's FAQ lists macOS as the supported target, calls the Linux AppImage experimental and untested, and has no date for Windows.
• The license isn't OSI open source. The code is on GitHub under the Elastic License 2.0. That's enough to read and audit it, but some companies only approve OSI licenses.
• It's an Electron app. The desktop app is built with Electron, and some developers want a native Mac app for long, output-heavy agent sessions.
• Mobile has strings attached. The iPhone app needs Pro and iOS 26 or later, and there's no Android app yet.
• GitHub is the happy path. Other remotes work locally, but the FAQ notes that recognizing the same project across machines currently depends on GitHub.
• No container boundary. Its docs describe worktrees for local work and separate clones in the cloud, with no per-task container option for agents that install system packages or run services.

Superset vs Conductor vs Orca#

These three come up together most often, so here is how they line up on the questions that usually decide it:

In short, Superset vs Conductor comes down to terminal versus chat and your own hosts versus hosted sandboxes, while Superset vs Orca comes down to price, license, and whether anyone on the team uses Windows or Linux.

1. Agentastic: best Superset alternative for Mac#

Agentastic shares Superset's premise: give every task its own git worktree and let the agent's own CLI do the work in a real terminal. What changes is the app around it and the price of the extras. Agentastic is written in Swift, renders terminals with GPU-accelerated Ghostty, and ships 55 built-in agent definitions plus any terminal command as a custom agent.

• Best for: Mac developers who want Superset's workflow without a per-seat plan for remote, scheduled, or mobile work.
• Platforms: Apple Silicon or Intel Macs on macOS 14+. Its iPhone app is a public TestFlight beta for iOS 18 and later, with no paid plan required.
• Isolation: worktrees by default, with Docker or Apple Container, SSH machines, or cloud agents on Modal, Fly.io, or Vercel Sandbox accounts you own.
• Price and license: free; closed source.

Here is how Superset's features, paid and free, map to Agentastic, where everything in the right column is part of the free app:

Where Superset beats Agentastic: you can read the source; there's an experimental Linux build; the SDK and MCP server are built for driving the workspace from code; teardown scripts run when a workspace is deleted; and Pro and Enterprise add team seats, collaboration, SSO, SCIM, audit logs, and a SOC 2 report. Agentastic's docs don't cover team administration.

Where Agentastic beats it: a native app, more built-in agents, containers, and the paid features in the table above at no cost.

2. Orca: best open-source Superset alternative#

Orca is the closest like-for-like swap. Like Superset, it's an Electron app with worktrees, terminals, a built-in editor (Monaco), a Chromium browser with Design Mode, and a CLI that agents can call. Unlike Superset, it's MIT-licensed, ships for macOS, Windows, and Linux, and has no paid tier. Its repository had about 85,800 GitHub stars on October 5, 2026.

• Best for: Superset users who need Windows or Linux, an OSI license, or the remote and mobile features without a subscription.
• Agents: roughly 40 preconfigured CLIs listed on its supported-agents page, plus any other CLI.
• Remote: SSH worktrees, plus a self-hosted Orca server (orca serve) that keeps agents running for desktop, browser, and phone clients. Per-workspace cloud VMs are an experimental setting that runs on your own provider account.
• Mobile: beta companion apps, from the App Store on iOS and as a downloadable APK on Android.

Where it beats Agentastic: Windows, Linux, and Android, an MIT license, and a very large community.

Where Agentastic beats it: a native Swift app with Ghostty terminals rather than xterm.js in Electron, shipped container and cloud modes instead of experimental recipes, and Sentry issue intake, which Orca's docs don't list. Before adopting Orca, know that its new agent launches skip permission prompts by default; Settings → Agents switches them back to manual approval. For more, see Orca alternatives.

3. Conductor: best for chat-first work and hosted cloud#

Conductor is the pick if what you actually want is less terminal, not more. Each task gets a worktree-backed workspace with a chat, a diff viewer, checks, and a pull-request flow. It's Mac-only and runs four agents: Claude Code, Codex, Cursor through Cursor's API, and OpenCode.

• Best for: Claude, Codex, Cursor, or OpenCode users who prefer chatting with agents and want cloud runs without managing hosts.
• Cloud: Conductor Cloud runs each workspace in a hosted Linux sandbox (8 vCPUs, 16 GB of RAM) that keeps working after you close your laptop. Repositories must come from GitHub.
• Price: local use costs nothing; cloud, live multiplayer, the API, and the iOS app come with Pro at $50 a month.

Compared with Superset, you give up any-CLI support and the SDK, and you gain hosted sandboxes and shared, real-time workspaces.

Where it beats Agentastic: cloud with nothing to configure, multiplayer sessions, and enterprise controls such as SAML SSO and SCIM.

Where Agentastic beats it: 55 agent definitions instead of four, containers, SSH machines, and cloud runs on your own accounts without a subscription.

4. Emdash: open-source app with a similar scope#

Emdash covers much of Superset's feature list in an Apache 2.0 app: a worktree per task, an in-app browser, diffs, pull requests, and CI status, scheduled agent runs, SSH remotes, a built-in file editor, and a library for prompts, skills, and MCP servers. It pulls issues from Linear, Jira, GitHub, Notion, and Asana. It's made by General Action, a YC company.

• Best for: teams that want Superset's breadth with an open-source license and Windows or Linux builds.
• Platforms: Mac, Windows, and Linux builds for both x64 and ARM64 are linked from its README.
• Agents: more than 25 CLI agents; installed ones are found automatically.
• Price and license: free and Apache 2.0, about 5,900 GitHub stars; a hosted Emdash Cloud is available through sales.

Where it beats Agentastic: cross-platform builds and open source.

Where Agentastic beats it: it's a Swift app rather than Electron, its container mode is built in rather than scripted, and it runs cloud agents on Modal, Fly.io, or Vercel from a settings screen instead of scripts you write.

5. Paseo: open-source take on remote access#

Superset's remote access works by registering a machine with its relay. Paseo is built entirely around that idea, and it's free. A daemon runs your agents in git worktrees on whatever machine you choose, including in Docker, and every client talks to that daemon, either directly or through Paseo's end-to-end encrypted relay.

• Best for: reaching agents that run on a different machine from the one in front of you.
• Platforms: desktop builds for macOS 13+, Windows, and Linux, apps for iOS and Android, and a web client (downloads).
• Agents: more than 30, including Claude Code, Codex, Copilot, and OpenCode.
• Price and license: no cost; the repository switched from AGPL to Apache 2.0 in August 2026.

Where it beats Agentastic: Android and web clients, Windows and Linux hosts, and a headless server.

Where Agentastic beats it: a native Mac app with Ghostty terminals, an LSP-backed editor, and per-task containers. See Agentastic vs Paseo.

6. cmux: native terminal for people who script everything#

If you mainly use Superset for its terminal panes and CLI, cmux may be enough. It's a native Swift terminal built on libghostty, with vertical tabs that show each workspace's branch and ports, rings around panes that need attention, a scriptable browser pane, SSH and remote tmux support, and a CLI and Unix socket API. It doesn't create worktrees for you; you script that yourself.

• Best for: developers who want a fast native terminal and their own automation on top.
• Platforms: macOS, with an iOS app in beta on TestFlight.
• Price and license: the app is free under GPL-3.0-or-later, with about 27,600 stars on GitHub. Paid plans start at $50 a month for cloud VMs and the iOS app.

Where it beats Agentastic: an open-source license and a minimal, terminal-only design.

Where Agentastic beats it: worktrees, an editor, diffs, and code review built in. See Agentastic vs cmux.

7. Claude Squad: best keyboard-only option#

Claude Squad is an AGPL-licensed terminal app that gives each task a tmux session and a git worktree, with a diff tab and commands to pause, resume, and push. Claude Code launches by default; a saved profile switches a session to Codex, Gemini, Aider, or another CLI.

• Best for: tmux users who want Superset's parallelism without a desktop app.
• Needs: tmux and GitHub's gh CLI; binaries are published for macOS and Linux.
• Price and license: AGPL-3.0 at no cost, with roughly 8,600 GitHub stars.

Where it beats Agentastic: it runs in any terminal, including over SSH on a Linux server.

Where Agentastic beats it: a full GUI with an editor, a browser, and review agents. See Claude Squad alternatives.

8. Nimbalyst: best for visual planning#

Nimbalyst takes a different angle: Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, and Copilot sessions share the window with editors for docs, wireframes, diagrams, database schemas, and CSV data, plus a tracker for tasks. It's MIT-licensed and runs on macOS, Windows, and Linux, with iOS and Android apps.

• Best for: people who spend as much time on specs and mockups as on code.
• Price and license: MIT, and free for individual use; team collaboration is a $20-per-seat plan that costs nothing while in beta.

Where it beats Agentastic: cross-platform apps and editable planning artifacts.

Where Agentastic beats it: dozens more agents and a terminal-first design, plus container, SSH, and cloud isolation that Nimbalyst's pages don't cover. See Nimbalyst alternatives.

When to stay with Superset#

Superset is still a good choice if:

• You want to read or audit the code, and the Elastic License 2.0 works for your company.
• Your tooling should drive the workspace through an SDK or MCP server.
• You're a team that will use Pro's shared seats, or an organization that needs Enterprise SSO, SCIM, and audit logs.
• Teardown scripts matter to you, for example to stop Docker services when a workspace is deleted.
• You're on a Mac and the per-seat price is not a concern.

How to choose#

1. Start with your operating system. If anyone needs Windows or Linux, shortlist Orca, Emdash, Paseo, and Nimbalyst. On a Mac, every option here works.
2. Decide what you'll pay for. For remote hosts, schedules, and mobile without a subscription, Agentastic and Orca include them. For hosted cloud compute, Conductor Pro is the simplest path.
3. Check the license policy. OSI open source: Orca, Emdash, Paseo, Nimbalyst, cmux, or Claude Squad. Source-available is fine: Superset stays in the running. Closed source is fine: Agentastic and Conductor.
4. Match the interface to how you work. Terminal-first: Agentastic, Orca, cmux, or Claude Squad. Chat-first: Conductor. Planning-first: Nimbalyst.
5. Weigh isolation. Worktrees cover most code changes. For agents that touch system packages or services, Agentastic's Docker and Apple Container modes add a stronger boundary.

How to switch from Superset to Agentastic#

Both tools run the official agent CLIs in ordinary git worktrees, so nothing about your repository or agent accounts changes.

1. Install Agentastic from the download page or with brew install agentasticai/tap/dev (macOS 14 or later).

2. Check your agent CLIs. Superset launches the CLIs you already have, so they're probably installed. Agentastic finds them in your shell environment; if one is missing from Agent Home, run it once in a terminal to finish its sign-in, then restart Agentastic.

3. Push open work. Superset workspaces are plain git worktrees under ~/.superset/worktrees/. Commit and push what you want to keep.

4. Open the repository with Cmd+O. The Quick Start explains the layout.

5. Port .superset/config.json. Move the setup commands into .agentastic/setup.sh, make it executable with chmod +x, and rename the variables:

   bashCopy

   #!/bin/bash # .agentastic/setup.sh, ported from "setup" in .superset/config.json set -euo pipefail # $SUPERSET_ROOT_PATH becomes $AGENTASTIC_MAIN_REPO_PATH if [ ! -f .env ] && [ -f "$AGENTASTIC_MAIN_REPO_PATH/.env" ]; then cp "$AGENTASTIC_MAIN_REPO_PATH/.env" .env fi pnpm install

   Superset variable	Agentastic variable
   SUPERSET_ROOT_PATH	AGENTASTIC_MAIN_REPO_PATH
   SUPERSET_WORKSPACE_PATH	AGENTASTIC_WORKTREE_PATH
   SUPERSET_WORKSPACE_NAME	No direct match; AGENTASTIC_BRANCH is closest

   The setup scripts guide lists every variable.

6. Turn run into a task. Add your dev-server command as a repository shell task under Settings → Add Task; it's saved in .agentastic/settings.json. A cwd from Superset becomes the task's working directory (Tasks).

7. Plan for teardown. Agentastic doesn't run teardown scripts automatically, so stop services yourself before removing a worktree. Container worktrees are the exception: their containers are stopped and removed for you.

8. Recreate Pro features. Add your remote hosts with File → Add Remote (Agentastic reads ~/.ssh/config), turn automations into scheduled agents from Agent Home, connect Linear under Settings → Accounts, and pair the iPhone app under Settings → Mobile App.

9. Move scripts to the dev CLI. Where you used the superset CLI to start work, use dev agent create:

   bashCopy

   dev agent create --repo ~/src/my-app --agent codex \ --name fix-onboarding --prompt "Fix the onboarding crash and add a test."

Worktrees are created next to the repository by default; Git worktrees covers the other locations.

Sources#

First-party pages reviewed on October 5, 2026:

• Superset: homepage, pricing, install, FAQ, AI agents, lifecycle scripts, remote access, in-app browser, GitHub
• Orca: homepage, supported agents, ways to run Orca, GitHub
• Conductor: pricing, harnesses, Cloud
• Emdash: homepage, GitHub
• Paseo: downloads, docs, GitHub
• cmux: homepage, pricing, GitHub
• Claude Squad: GitHub
• Nimbalyst: pricing, GitHub

Continue the research:

• Agentastic vs Superset, feature by feature
• Conductor alternatives, including the Conductor vs Superset breakdown
• AI coding agent orchestration tools

Frequently asked questions#

Is Superset open source?#

Not in the OSI sense. Superset publishes its full source on GitHub under the Elastic License 2.0, which is source-available rather than an OSI-approved open-source license. If you need an OSI license, look at Orca (MIT), Emdash (Apache 2.0), Paseo (Apache 2.0), Nimbalyst (MIT), cmux (GPL), or Claude Squad (AGPL).

Does Superset work on Windows or Linux?#

Superset officially supports only macOS, on Apple Silicon or Intel. Each release also includes a Linux x64 AppImage that the team labels experimental and untested, Windows has no release date, and the Superset CLI does run on Linux. For Windows or Linux desktops today, Orca, Emdash, Paseo, and Nimbalyst have native builds.

How much does Superset cost?#

Superset's Free plan is for a single person and includes local workspaces plus the desktop app and CLI. Pro costs $20 per seat per month ($15 a seat with annual billing) and unlocks remote access, automations, the Linear and Slack integrations, and the iPhone app. Enterprise adds SSO, SCIM, and audit logs at custom pricing.

Is there a free Superset alternative?#

Yes. Agentastic is free and includes remote SSH machines, cloud agents on your own accounts, scheduled agents, Linear issues, and an iPhone beta. Orca, Emdash, Paseo, and Nimbalyst are free and open source. You still pay for your agent subscriptions and any cloud compute you use.

Superset vs Conductor: what is the difference?#

Superset is terminal-first, runs any CLI agent, and can be scripted through its CLI, SDK, and MCP server. Conductor is chat-first, runs Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, and OpenCode, and offers managed cloud sandboxes and live multiplayer on its $50-a-month Pro plan. Both desktop apps are built for macOS.

Superset vs Orca: which should you use?#

Choose Orca if you need Windows or Linux, an MIT license, or free mobile apps for iOS and Android. Choose Superset if you work on a Mac, want its SDK, MCP server, and relay-connected hosts, and are happy to pay for Pro. Both are Electron apps with an editor, a browser, and a CLI.

Is Superset the same as Apache Superset?#

No. Superset at superset.sh is a desktop workspace for running AI coding agents, while Apache Superset is an open-source business-intelligence and dashboard tool. They are unrelated projects, so an alternative to one is not an alternative to the other.