· Harness/ Head to head

OpenClaw vs Goose

Both are open source harness options with comparable terms, so the choice comes down to which model of the problem you prefer — compare the descriptions below rather than the licence.

OpenClaw

Self-hosted gateway putting an agent in Slack, Telegram, WhatsApp, Signal, Discord and iMessage at once.

Open source · can be self-hosted

One Gateway process fans out to every channel plugin. Needs Node 22.22.3+ (26 recommended); the installer provisions it.

Goose

Block's open-source on-machine agent with an extension system.

Open source · can be self-hosted

· Side by side/ 1 of 6 differ
OpenClawGoose
LicenceOpen sourceOpen source
Pricingopen sourceopen source
Self-hostableYesYes
LanguagesAny languageAny language
Installcurl -fsSL https://openclaw.ai/install.sh | bashbrew install block-goose-cli
Keys requiredNoneNone
· Common questions/ FAQ

What is the difference between OpenClaw and Goose?

Both are open source harness options with comparable terms, so the choice comes down to which model of the problem you prefer — compare the descriptions below rather than the licence. OpenClaw: Self-hosted gateway putting an agent in Slack, Telegram, WhatsApp, Signal, Discord and iMessage at once. Goose: Block's open-source on-machine agent with an extension system.

Can OpenClaw and Goose be self-hosted?

OpenClaw can run on your own infrastructure. Goose can run on your own infrastructure.

Are OpenClaw and Goose open source?

OpenClaw is open source (open source). Goose is open source (open source).

Build a stack with OpenClawAll harness options
· For agents/ This page, machine-readable

Every page here answers to Accept: text/markdown and returns the same content at roughly a tenth the tokens. No separate site, no toggle — same URL.

curl -s -H "Accept: text/markdown" https://newagent.build/compare/openclaw-vs-goose