handup vs Orbi
handup vs Orbi: score breakdown
handup and Orbi both score 72/100. Handup is ahead on Ease of use (19 vs 17) and Value (22 vs 20); Orbi is ahead on Delivery (15 vs 11); they tie on Capability (20). Each sub-score is out of 25.
Features and platforms
| Feature | handup | Orbi |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Paid | Freemium |
| Free plan | No | Yes |
| Platforms | Web (demo), Linux (x86-64, ARM64), macOS (Intel, Apple Silicon), Windows x86-64 (beta), Android | Web (Orbi Cloud), Self-hosted (Linux via systemd, macOS via launchd), GitHub App |
| Best for | Solo developers running multiple AI coding agents who need a human checkpoint before risky actions | Small dev teams running GitHub-native workflows who want fully autonomous Issue-to-release delivery |
| Skip if | Teams needing shared approval queues or users who want a hosted relay without running their own server | Teams wanting in-editor AI assistance or those with more than 5 repositories on a single plan |
Cost and usage limits
handup has a free plan. Orbi has a free plan; paid plans start at $29/month (Orbi Cloud Solo).
Prices from each vendor's pricing page. handup checked November 2026 · Orbi checked October 2026
Pros and cons
handup
- Hash-bound approvals tie your decision to the exact content you reviewed, preventing agents from substituting a different command after approval
- Denials return structured feedback to the agent so it revises and asks again rather than erroring out, keeping agentic workflows moving
- 14-day fully featured trial with no account or credit card, and a $30 one-time price with no subscription and a 30-day refund window
- Team licensing does not exist yet, so a two-person team cannot share an approval queue at any price
- The managed relay for reaching your phone without running a server is planned but not for sale; you must run the relay binary on your own Linux server today
- Windows support is beta and unsigned, requiring users to click through SmartScreen warnings during installation
Orbi
- Independent AI review-and-repair session before merge is a concrete trust layer absent from most competing agents, not just a marketing claim.
- Self-hosted tier is genuinely free forever under AGPL-3.0 with no repository or delivery count caps, and supports any OpenAI-compatible model endpoint.
- The delivery loop ends at a frozen, tagged GitHub Release with closed milestone, not just a merged PR, giving teams a complete audit trail inside their existing repository.
- Cloud Solo plan is limited to a single repository, which makes it unusable for teams working across multiple repos without upgrading to Pro at $79/month.
- Token allowances are fixed per plan (400M on Solo, 1.2B on Pro) and when exhausted, new deliveries pause entirely until the next billing cycle, with no option to purchase additional capacity.
- The tool is GitHub-only by design; teams using GitLab, Bitbucket, or Azure DevOps have no path to adoption at all.
Our verdict
handup verdict
handup is the right tool for a solo developer who runs agentic coding workflows and wants a single place to approve or block consequential actions before they happen. It does one thing and does it with real depth: previews are hash-bound to the exact content you approved, denials reach the agent as structured feedback rather than errors, and the Android app wakes even when closed. The tradeoff is that team licensing does not exist yet, and the planned managed relay is not available for purchase, so anyone who needs multi-seat access or a hosted relay today will hit a hard wall.
Read full handup review →Orbi verdict
Orbi is the right pick for small engineering teams whose entire workflow already lives in GitHub Issues and who want an autonomous agent that goes past a PR to an actual tagged release. Its independent review-and-repair loop before merge is a genuine differentiator, but the cloud tier caps you at one repository on Solo and five on Pro, which will frustrate teams with larger monorepo setups. If you want an AI assistant that works inside your editor rather than operating unattended on your repo, GitHub Copilot is the better fit.
Read full Orbi review →