The best alternatives to AionUi, depending on why you're leaving

The best alternative to AionUi depends on which part of it you use. For an agent of its own, look at Orkas, goose or Eigent. For a small window over the CLI agents you already run, littleguys, Agent Hub or Happy Desktop. For coding agents in git worktrees, Orca. To keep agents inside your editor, Zed or a JetBrains IDE. And if you use all of it, stay put: nothing else packs as much into one free app.

Disclosure: I make littleguys, one of the apps below, so read that entry with the appropriate squint.

AionUi is four apps in a trench coat

AionUi is free, Apache-2.0 and has 34k GitHub stars. It's really four products:

1. An agent of its own, on any API key or a local model.
2. A front end for CLI agents: Claude Code, Codex, OpenClaw, Hermes, Gemini CLI and 20+ more.
3. Office work: document assistants, cron tasks, a leader-and-teammates mode.
4. Reach from your phone: a WebUI, plus Telegram, Lark, DingTalk and WeChat bots.

If you use one of those, you're carrying the other three around. The installer is about 290 MB.

Two other things are worth knowing before you decide. The latest release is still v2.2.2, from September 9, though the repo keeps getting commits. And the README's FAQ says "Nothing is uploaded to any server", while release builds ship with Sentry wired in: crash reports, plus a gzip of that day's logs at most once every 24 hours. That's normal for a desktop app, and you may not care. You should just know it's there.

If you want an agent of its own

• Orkas is the closest thing to AionUi: a Commander splits your goal into to-dos for 16 built-in specialist agents, plus Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, OpenClaw and Hermes. Mac and Windows, MIT, about 470 MB. No Linux installer, and remote control is still only planned.
• goose is a general-purpose agent as a desktop app, CLI and API, with 15+ model providers. It's a Linux Foundation project, Apache-2.0, on Mac, Windows and Linux.
• Eigent runs a workforce of agents that splits a task and works on it in parallel, on your own keys or local models. Free that way, with paid plans for credits. It's a 659 MB download.
• Claude Cowork is the option if you only use Claude and already pay for it. It's closed source, and new tasks on Pro, Max and Ultra run on Anthropic's servers.

If you just want a window over the agents you already run

If this is the only job you use AionUi for, you can go much smaller. The question to ask is whose sessions the app shows. AionUi and Agent Hub start their own session for each chat, so a Claude Code you left running in a terminal doesn't appear.

• littleguys is mine: a WhatsApp-style chat app with no agent or model inside. Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, Goose, OpenCode, OpenClaw, Hermes and any ACP agent are contacts with their own chats, approvals and routines, and every Claude Code session on the computer shows up, terminal ones included. It's a 17 MB download on Mac and 7 MB on Windows, MIT, with no account or telemetry. It's also a young, small project. It has no WebUI, no phone bots and no team mode.
• Agent Hub is a chat window over the Claude Code, Codex, Hermes and OpenClaw CLIs, on your Mac or over SSH on any host you can reach. Free, MIT, Apple silicon only.
• Happy Desktop runs Claude Code, Codex, Gemini and more on the subscriptions you already have, with phone apps showing the same sessions, end-to-end encrypted. Free, MIT, on Mac, Windows and Linux.

If your agents write code

• Orca puts each task in its own git worktree, with terminals, diffs you can comment on, GitHub and Linear. Free, MIT, on Mac, Windows and Linux, with phone apps.
• Zed and the JetBrains IDEs run the same agents over ACP, next to your code. If you already live in one of them, you may not need another app at all.

When to stay on AionUi

If you want Linux, office-document assistants, an agent on any API key, 20+ CLI agents and your phone through chat bots, all in one free app, AionUi is still the answer. Orkas comes closest, and it can't do all of that yet. "Too many features" is only a problem if you're not using them.

At a glance

Sizes and features were checked against each app's own site and README in November 2026. These apps change weekly, so check before you switch.

Drafted with AI help from each app's docs and littleguys' code. I checked it and I stand behind it.