OpenHands leads in popularity with 83,729 stars vs 48,125 stars for Aider. The 74% higher star count indicates stronger community adoption. In terms of developer contributions, OpenHands has 10,827 forks, indicating strong developer engagement.

OpenHands is growing faster, adding 3,175 stars in the last 30 days (+3.9%) against adding 810 stars for Aider (+1.7%). OpenHands is both larger and pulling further ahead.

OpenHands shows more recent development activity with its last commit 14 hours ago, while Aider was last updated 3 months ago. This suggests OpenHands is being more actively maintained.

Both tools share common technology foundations, being built with JavaScript, CSS, Bash, Python. However, they differ in their additional technology choices: Aider uses SCSS, Ruby while OpenHands leverages Typescript, JSX.

Both projects started around the same time, with Aider beginning 3 years ago and OpenHands 2 years ago.

OpenHands uses the MIT license, which is more permissive than Aider's Apache-2.0 license, potentially offering greater flexibility for commercial use and integration.

Aider also focuses on AI Coding Assistants while OpenHands extends into AI Coding Agents.

OpenHands provides self-hosting options for complete data control and customization, while Aider may be primarily cloud-based or require different deployment approaches.