Control Center vs Orca.
Orca and Control Center both offer cross-platform desktop and phone clients, isolated worktrees, self-hosted server state and in-app PR review and merge. Orca can open a worktree from an existing PR for review; Control Center also has an independent PR inbox spanning its linked repos, plus first-party tickets, DAG pipelines, meeting capture and calendar, memory and team presence.
Orca(opens Orca in a new tab)Starts at Free · open source
Last updated · September 27, 2026 · Checked against Orca’s public site
Side by side.
✓ yes · ≈ partial — hover or focus a ≈ for the reason · — not offered.
For PRs, ✓ means an inbox for any open PR in a linked repo, with review and merge in app; no agent chat or worktree is required. ≈ means the flow is workspace-bound, early-beta or otherwise narrower — not necessarily restricted to agent-created PRs.
| Capability | Control Center | Orca |
|---|---|---|
| Starts at | Free · self-hosted | Free · open source |
| Free & open source | Yes | Yes |
| Native desktop · mac / win / linux | Yes | Yes |
| Phone companion | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted headless server | Yes | Yes |
| Parallel worktree isolation | Yes | Yes |
| Repo-wide PR inbox & merge | Yes | Partial — Can browse existing hosted PRs and open a worktree from one for inline review and merge; a standalone inbox with full review across linked repos is not documented. |
| Pipelines & scheduled triggers | Yes | Partial — Scheduled automations across local and remote hosts, rather than a DAG of dependent steps. |
| Meetings & calendar | Yes | Not offered |
| Multi-user teams | Yes | Partial — Several paired clients can share a server-owned runtime, but team roles and presence are not documented. |
About Orca: GitHub supports inline review, checks, stacks and merge queues; GitLab merge requests use the same worktree review flow with fewer extras. An existing PR can seed a worktree, but full review is centered on that worktree rather than an independent PR inbox. Remote Orca servers own session state and accept paired desktop, web and phone clients. Orca also links external issues, including Linear, to worktrees; automations schedule prompts rather than dependent DAG steps.
Prices are each vendor’s published starting point for the tool. Model access may need your own provider key or subscription, or may be included in a paid plan; compare those costs separately.
Where Control Center pulls ahead
A repo-wide PR inbox without first linking the PR to a worktree, first-party tickets with Linear sync, resumable DAG pipelines, on-device meeting capture and calendar, role-gated memory, a code graph and unified action guardrails. Orca can browse external PRs and open one in a worktree, but its documented full review flow centers that worktree.
Where Orca pulls ahead
You want a cross-platform agent IDE with browser-per-task isolation, external issue tracking and in-app PR review, without a meeting/calendar deck or dependent DAG pipelines.
Choosing between them.
What is the difference between Control Center and Orca?
Orca and Control Center both offer cross-platform desktop and phone clients, isolated worktrees, self-hosted server state and in-app PR review and merge. Orca can open a worktree from an existing PR for review; Control Center also has an independent PR inbox spanning its linked repos, plus first-party tickets, DAG pipelines, meeting capture and calendar, memory and team presence.
When should I choose Orca over Control Center?
You want a cross-platform agent IDE with browser-per-task isolation, external issue tracking and in-app PR review, without a meeting/calendar deck or dependent DAG pipelines. (GitHub supports inline review, checks, stacks and merge queues; GitLab merge requests use the same worktree review flow with fewer extras. An existing PR can seed a worktree, but full review is centered on that worktree rather than an independent PR inbox. Remote Orca servers own session state and accept paired desktop, web and phone clients. Orca also links external issues, including Linear, to worktrees; automations schedule prompts rather than dependent DAG steps.)
When should I choose Control Center over Orca?
A repo-wide PR inbox without first linking the PR to a worktree, first-party tickets with Linear sync, resumable DAG pipelines, on-device meeting capture and calendar, role-gated memory, a code graph and unified action guardrails. Orca can browse external PRs and open one in a worktree, but its documented full review flow centers that worktree.
How much does Orca cost compared to Control Center?
Starting price — Orca: Free · open source. Control Center: Free · self-hosted. Prices are each vendor’s published starting point for the tool. Model access may need your own provider key or subscription, or may be included in a paid plan; compare those costs separately.
See every tool on one grid on the full comparison page, or download Control Center and feel it.