wisp vs Orca

Side by side

From each project’s own README and docs on 7 November 2026. We read them; we didn’t run them. They move fast: check before you choose.

Where wisp is different

• You read instead of watching. Orca puts each agent’s chat or terminal, diff and browser in front of you. wisp runs each task headless in its own worktree, and by default ends every turn with a one-screen report: what changed, the diff, the tests. Questions wait in Needs you.
• A crew that stays. wisp’s crew are named agents with a role, a schedule, a notebook and their own skills. You can @mention them in any prompt. Orca has scheduled automations, and its docs mark its orchestration panel as experimental and temporarily unavailable.
• Auto picks the harness. For each task wisp chooses the harness, model and thinking level from what worked before, shows the pick before you send, and learns from merges and follow-ups.
• Nothing to install. Sign in to wisp Cloud and the agents run on a server with your laptop shut. You bring your own agent plans. It’s a preview on one small server, so it suits one person better than a team’s heavy builds.

Where Orca is better

• Installing with confidence. Orca’s Mac builds are signed and notarized, and its Windows builds are signed too. wisp’s aren’t signed yet, so on a Mac the easy way in is a curl one-liner or Open Anyway.
• iPhone. Orca has an iOS app. wisp has a Home Screen web app, on wisp Cloud only.
• Browser work. Every worktree gets a real Chromium browser, and Design Mode sends a clicked element with its computed CSS and a screenshot. wisp’s Pick element adds its HTML and key styles as text, without a screenshot.
• Desktop dictation. Orca has it. wisp’s is on Android only.
• Reach. Far more agents, more git hosts, and a far larger community than wisp, which is one owner and a crew.
• Leaving Conductor. Orca’s migration guide opens workspaces in place, reads conductor.json and covers Cloud.

Pick Orca if

• You like being in the room while agents work, with terminals, diffs and a browser in one window.
• You do a lot of UI work and want a clicked element to reach the agent with a screenshot.
• You need signed builds, an iOS app, or an agent wisp doesn’t run.

Pick wisp if

• You’d rather send work off and read the result than keep a fleet in view.
• You want long-lived agents that check in on a schedule and remember what they saw.
• You want hosted agents with no install and no cloud account of your own to set up.