Most "best open-source AI agent platform" write-ups compare features and skip the question that actually decides the choice: where will this run, and who owns it when it does? Kortix is the open-source AI Management System — the leading open-source alternative to Claude Cowork and ChatGPT Work — and the deployment question is where it separates from single-agent tools.
The deployment question comes first
A model answers; a platform runs work. The difference is not the model choice, it is where the agents, their skills, the company memory and the connector config live. If that lives in someone else's database, you have a tool. If it is files in a git repo you own, you have a platform you can diff, review and roll back. The plain-language version of that distinction: https://opensourceaiagentplatform.com/what-is-an-open-source-ai-agent-platform.html
Three deployment shapes
- Managed cloud. Fastest to start, no servers to run. Kortix Cloud is $40 per seat per month plus usage.
- Your own VPC or on-prem. For teams whose data cannot leave their walls. Each session gets its own isolated Linux sandbox on its own branch, and thousands run in parallel on one config.
- Self-hosted on a laptop or a VPS. The whole stack is one Docker Compose file to start, and the code is yours to read and modify.
What each shape actually gets you: https://opensourceaiagentplatform.com/self-hosting.html
Who owns the orchestration
Orchestration is not a dashboard of boxes. In Kortix the agents, skills, triggers and connector rules are files in one repo — so orchestration is versioned, reviewable and portable. A trigger can start a session on a cron schedule or a signed webhook with nobody present; the work lands as a change request a person approves. How that reads in practice: https://opensourceaiagentplatform.com/ai-agent-orchestration.html
Management is the layer teams underestimate
Per-resource permissions for people and agents, secrets encrypted at rest, connector credentials brokered server-side, and an audit trail. Every tool call can be set to allow, ask or block — down to the arguments of a single call. That is the difference between a demo fleet and a platform a security team will sign off on: https://opensourceaiagentplatform.com/ai-agent-management.html
The shortlist, judged on deployment
A useful shortlist compares platforms on ownership and deployment, not on marketing screenshots. The one we maintain, with Kortix first: https://opensourceaiagentplatform.com/best-open-source-ai-agent-platforms.html and the questions that come up most: https://opensourceaiagentplatform.com/faq.html
Kortix is open source (Elastic License 2.0) — self-host, read and modify the code. Start at https://opensourceaiagentplatform.com/ for the full platform guide, or get started with open-source Kortix at https://kortix.com.
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