Claude Code vs Goose
Claude Code is paid, while Goose is free. Goose is open source and Claude Code is not. You can run Goose on your own machine or server; Claude Code is hosted by the vendor.
Which one should you try?
Claude Code
PaidBest for Developers comfortable reviewing code and commands
Goose
FreeBest for Developers who want an open-source agent for file and shell tasks
Field notes
All field notes →- Goose and Hermes: the model changed our task-test results
Goose completed five of nine attempts with our small local model and Hermes completed none. With the recorded hosted model, both completed all nine. The model and context…
- OpenCode with a 3B model: check the files, not just the exit status
OpenCode created the requested file in all three small-model attempts, but passed neither of the other tasks. Its hosted-model rerun passed all nine attempts.
Pricing, capabilities and platforms side by side. Prices are as of the "Pricing checked" date in the table.
Claude Code
Anthropic's coding agent for editing repositories, running commands and tests, and reviewing changes.
Goose
Goose is an open-source agent with a desktop app, CLI and API, MCP extensions and reusable recipes. We ran it on three tasks with a local 3B model and with Claude Opus 5.5.
| Attribute | Claude Code | Goose |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Paid | Free |
| Price | Pro US$20/month or US$200/year billed upfront; API/provider usage billed separately | — |
| Pricing checked | Oct 17, 2026 | Not checked yet |
| Free trial | Not stated | Not stated |
| Open source | No | Yes |
| Has API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted option | No | Yes |
| Platforms | Terminal, VS Code, JetBrains, desktop, web | macOS, Linux, Windows |
| Released | — | 2025 |
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Made up your mind?
Claude Code
PaidBest for Developers comfortable reviewing code and commands
Goose
FreeBest for Developers who want an open-source agent for file and shell tasks
Specs come from each tool's own site and docs (how we test). AIDiveForge is editorially independent.