--- title: "Best AQ alternatives in 2026: hosted agent workspaces and the coordination layer · Cork" description: "The best AQ alternatives in 2026: Amika, Superconductor, Conductor, Claude Code on the web, Superset and Cork, compared on where agents run and price." canonical: "https://corkcli.com/blog/aq-alternatives" last_updated: "2026-11-14" published: "2026-10-03" author: "Kevin Vera" --- # Best AQ alternatives in 2026: hosted agent workspaces and the coordination layer The best AQ alternatives in 2026: Amika, Superconductor, Conductor, Claude Code on the web, Superset and Cork, compared on where agents run and price. By Kevin Vera · October 3, 2026 · [Alternatives](https://corkcli.com/blog/c/alternatives) · 8 min read AQ (aq.dev, by BetterLeap, Inc.) calls itself "the multiplayer coding harness": teams run coding agents like Claude Code and Codex in shared workspaces with live terminals, a code editor and app previews, on a runner VM in your own cloud or one AQ runs for you. Each task gets its own git worktree. People look for AQ alternatives for a few verified reasons, as of October 2026: the Team plan is $50 per user per month only as an early access rate locked for 12 months, with a standard price of $200 per user per month; the work moves into a browser workspace on a runner rather than your own terminal; and worktree isolation keeps agents apart until merge time without telling them what the others are changing. ## The alternatives at a glance | Tool | Best for | Where it runs | Pricing as of October 2026 | |---|---|---|---| | [Amika](https://corkcli.com/blog/cork-vs-amika) | Shareable sandbox VMs for agents and teammates | Amika's cloud, your cloud, or your own computer | Free; Developer $30/user/mo; Team $100/user/mo; Enterprise custom | | [Superconductor](https://corkcli.com/blog/cork-vs-superconductor) | Multiplayer cloud sessions with guided review | Cloud sandboxes Superconductor hosts | Free (32 sandbox hours); Pro $128/mo; Enterprise custom | | [Conductor](https://corkcli.com/blog/cork-vs-conductor) | Running parallel agents on a Mac | Local workspaces on your Mac; cloud workspaces on paid plans | Free; Pro $50/mo; Teams $60/user/mo; Enterprise custom | | Superset | A local workspace app for many CLI agents | Your machine; remote access on Pro | Free; Pro $20/user/mo ($15 yearly); Enterprise custom | | Claude Code on the web | Cloud Claude Code sessions with no extra tool | Anthropic-managed VMs or a self-hosted environment | Included with Claude Pro, Max, Team and eligible Enterprise seats | | Cork | Keeping parallel agents and people from overwriting each other | Wherever your agents already run | Free (local, and 10 agent hours a month in the cloud); $20 a month per 100 agent hours, pooled | ## Amika Amika (amika.dev, Fixpoint, Inc.) is the closest like-for-like swap. It lets you "create a sandbox VM on any computer," run any agent in it, and share that workstation (a "Rig") with teammates. Rigs come with HTTPS preview URLs, can be ephemeral or persistent, and can be driven from the web UI, Slack, Linear, SSH, a CLI or an API. Supported agents include Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode and Pi. The CLI, daemon, sandbox image and SDK are open source under Apache 2.0; the control plane and UI are closed. Pricing (as of October 2026): Free with $5 of sandbox credits and 2 concurrent sandboxes; Developer at $30 per user per month; Team at $100 per user per month with unlimited concurrent sandboxes; Enterprise custom with bring-your-own-cloud. Pick Amika if you want AQ's hosted-workstation model with an open core and a cheaper entry tier. Comparison: https://corkcli.com/blog/cork-vs-amika ## Superconductor Superconductor (superconductor.com, built by Volition) is a multiplayer workspace where teams "drive their own agents" in shared sessions. Each piece of work runs in an isolated cloud sandbox with snapshots and network policies, teammates can be @mentioned into conversations, and Guided Review orders a diff "dependencies first, then dependents." It supports Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, Pi, Factory Droid, Grok Build, Amp and Cursor, and has web, desktop and mobile apps. Pricing (as of October 2026): Free with up to 32 sandbox hours a month, 4 members and 4 concurrent agents; Pro at $128 per month for up to 32 members and unlimited concurrent agents; Enterprise custom. Pick it if you want AQ's shared-session feel with a flat team price instead of per-seat. Comparison: https://corkcli.com/blog/cork-vs-superconductor ## Conductor Conductor (conductor.build) is a Mac app to "run parallel Claude Code, Codex, and Cursor agents in isolated workspaces," then review and merge their output. Workspaces are built on [git worktrees](https://corkcli.com/blog/git-worktrees-parallel-ai-coding-agents), one branch per workspace. Paid plans add cloud workspaces, live collaboration and a mobile app. Pricing (as of October 2026): Free (local workspaces, bring your own keys); Pro at $50 per month; Teams at $60 per user per month; Enterprise custom. Pick Conductor if what you liked about AQ was parallel agents with a clean review path, and you work on a Mac. Comparison: https://corkcli.com/blog/cork-vs-conductor ## Superset Superset (superset.sh) is "one workspace for Claude Code, Codex, and any coding agent," with a git worktree and branch per task and support for 30+ CLI agents. The code is source-available under the Elastic License 2.0. The desktop app targets macOS, with an experimental Linux build. Pricing (as of October 2026): Free for one user with local workspaces; Pro at $20 per user per month ($15 billed yearly) adds unlimited users, remote access, automations, Linear and Slack; Enterprise custom. Pick Superset if you want to keep agents on your own machine and pay far less per seat. Comparison: https://corkcli.com/blog/cork-vs-superset ## Claude Code on the web If your team is standardized on Claude Code, Anthropic's own cloud sessions may cover what you used AQ for. Sessions run in isolated VMs on Anthropic-managed infrastructure (or a self-hosted environment), keep running after you close your laptop, and can be started from claude.ai/code, the Claude apps or `claude --cloud`. Each session works on its own branch; you open a pull request or pull the session into your terminal with `claude --teleport`. Pricing (as of October 2026): no separate price; it is included with Pro ($20 per month, $17 billed annually), Max (from $100 per month), Team seats and eligible Enterprise seats, sharing your plan's usage limits. It does not offer AQ's shared live terminals or multi-vendor agents. Comparison: https://corkcli.com/blog/cork-vs-claude-code-on-the-web ## Cork Cork is not a hosted workspace, and it is not a like-for-like AQ replacement: it does not provide cloud VMs, a code editor, live terminal sharing or app previews. It fits if the reason you looked at AQ was "several agents and several people on one codebase," and the part that hurts is agents overwriting or breaking each other's work. Cork is the [coordination layer](https://corkcli.com/blog/coordination-layer-ai-coding-agents) for multiplayer coding agents: it keeps Claude Code, Codex and Cursor agents, on one machine or across a team's machines, from overwriting each other on one codebase, and hands each agent what the others already learned. Hooks in Claude Code, Codex and Cursor do the work with no extra model calls. Each agent gets a briefing of the exact signatures, callers and recent changes of the code it is about to touch; hears another agent's rename or new signature on its next step; and has an edit held when it targets code another agent is changing right now. Landing makes `git push` one step that rebases, reruns the tests and pushes. In Cork's benchmark (12 Claude Code agents at once on one repository, hard tasks), agents with Cork used 53% fewer tokens than the same agents without it. Install with `curl -fsSL https://corkcli.com/install.sh | sh`. Cork Free is unlimited agents and repos on one machine with no account; in the cloud, Cork bills agent hours, not seats ($20 a month per 100, pooled across the workspace), and the paid plan adds teammates' machines. Because AQ isolates tasks in worktrees, the two can also be complementary, though we have not verified a documented AQ integration. Comparison: https://corkcli.com/blog/cork-vs-aq ## How to choose - **You want hosted, shareable machines like AQ:** Amika or Superconductor. Amika is per-seat with an open core; Superconductor is a flat team price. - **You want parallel agents on your own machine with a review flow:** Conductor on a Mac, or Superset for a cheaper per-seat price and more agent CLIs. - **Your team only uses Claude Code:** Claude Code on the web is already in your plan. - **Your real problem is agents and teammates colliding on the same code:** Cork, alone or underneath any of the tools above. Worktrees and sandboxes separate agents; they do not tell agents what the others are changing. ## Frequently asked questions ### What is the cheapest AQ alternative for a team? Among hosted options, Amika's Developer plan is $30 per user per month and Superconductor Pro is $128 per month for up to 32 members (as of October 2026). Local tools cost less: Superset Pro is $20 per user per month. Cork bills pooled agent hours instead ($20 a month per 100 hours across the workspace), so it has no per-person price to set beside these, and it does not host machines. ### Is there an open source alternative to AQ? Amika's CLI, daemon, sandbox image and SDK are open source under Apache 2.0. Superset's code is source-available under the Elastic License 2.0. For fully open source local agent managers, see our Conductor alternatives page. ### Does any AQ alternative stop agents from overwriting each other? Most of them separate agents with worktrees or sandboxes, which avoids sharing a working copy but leaves conflicts for merge time. Cork is built for the live case: it holds an edit against code another agent is changing and tells each agent about renames and signature changes as they happen. ## Sources Checked October 2026: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ## Related reading - [Best Conductor alternatives in 2026: run parallel coding agents on any OS](https://corkcli.com/blog/conductor-alternatives): The best Conductor alternatives in 2026 for Windows, Linux and teams: Emdash, Orca, Superset, Sculptor and Cork, compared on platforms, agents and price. - [Best Devin alternatives in 2026: autonomous coding agents compared](https://corkcli.com/blog/devin-alternatives): The best Devin alternatives in 2026: Factory, OpenAI Codex cloud, Claude Code on the web, Cursor cloud agents, Copilot coding agent and Cork, with prices. - [Best GitHub Copilot coding agent alternatives in 2026](https://corkcli.com/blog/github-copilot-coding-agent-alternatives): The best GitHub Copilot coding agent alternatives in 2026: Codex cloud, Claude Code on the web, Cursor cloud agents, Devin, Factory and Cork, compared. - [Best Cursor cloud agents (background agents) alternatives in 2026](https://corkcli.com/blog/cursor-cloud-agents-alternatives): The best Cursor background agents alternatives in 2026: Claude Code on the web, Codex cloud, Copilot coding agent, Devin, Factory and Cork, with prices. 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