hob vs Paseo
Paseo is a free, open-source (Apache 2.0) control plane for coding agents. A daemon runs your agents on a laptop, VM, or server, and desktop, web, and mobile apps connect to it through an end-to-end encrypted relay. hob uses a similar design: one Host process runs the work, and the desktop app, a browser, or your phone connects to it.
The difference is what the workspace is for. Paseo focuses on controlling agents from anywhere. hob is built for people and agents working together, with issues, previews, documents, review, and a record that links each result to the conversation that produced it.
At a glance
| Topic | hob | Paseo |
|---|---|---|
| License and price | Pro $50/mo, Pro+ $75/mo with remote access and headless, billed annually. First month free. | Free and open source (Apache 2.0). Optional Paseo Hub is free to self-host or €15 per seat per month hosted. |
| Platforms | macOS, Windows, and Linux desktop; browser and phone access to the same Host. | macOS, Windows, and Linux desktop; iOS and Android apps; a web app; a server you install with npm, Nix, or Docker. |
| Agents | Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, and Grok Build. | Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, and Pi built in; more through Agent Client Protocol (ACP). |
| Agents working together | Built in: agents open panes and previews, point at details for you, start a delegate, message another agent pane, and file issues. | Agents can start subagents and prompt other agents through Paseo tools, which are off by default. |
| Record of the work | Conversations in a local database. Commits and issues link back to the turn that produced them. Search past conversations from History, and agents search the same history themselves. | Agent history with archive and session import. |
| Beyond code | Render panes for documents, PDFs, images, and spreadsheets (beta), with markup and annotations between you and your agents. | Terminals, browser tabs, and diffs in tabs or split panes. |
| Automation | Automations combine commands and agent steps, run manually or on a schedule, and keep a record of every run. | Cron schedules and recurring prompts to an existing agent; Hub adds GitHub, Slack, and Discord triggers. |
Why pay for hob?
Most tools in this category are free, or come with a model subscription. Here is what a hob subscription buys.
Always use the best. No tooling changes.
Agent tools change every month. A new model takes the lead, a harness ships a feature, a new practice spreads. hob brings the best of the whole agent stack into one app, so each improvement reaches you where you already work.
hob builds the workspace once, for all your agents. Agents fork, queue, and schedule the same way in Claude Code, Codex, and OpenCode. Your agents open live previews, point you at the element they changed, take your markup on an image, PDF, or web page, and ask each other for reviews. Every commit made through hob links to the conversation behind it, recorded on your machine, not in your repository. One setting gives every agent the same personality.
Every harness wants to keep you inside its own ecosystem. hob keeps each one optional. Use whichever agent is best this month, and keep your workspace, history, and automations exactly as they are.
You never leave hob
Code, web pages, PDFs, images, documents, and spreadsheets (beta) open in hob beside the work. Mark up any of them for an agent. Agents annotate them for you just as easily.
Agents that know hob
Every agent starts with hob's instructions. From its first turn, it opens panes, previews, and diffs, points you at a detail, and coordinates with other agents.
The subscriptions you already pay for
hob runs Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, and Grok Build on your own accounts. You pay hob for the workspace, never for tokens.
No reason to sell you tokens
hob does not resell inference, so it earns nothing when you spend more. Every change we ship aims to make your work faster and easier.
Change models, keep the workspace
Switch model or account from the pane. For another provider, or a local model through OpenCode, open a new agent beside it; it can read the recorded task. Your workspace, history, and automations stay the same.
Your data stays yours
Conversations and history live in a local database on your machine. hob's servers never hold your code or your sessions.
Support from the people who build it
You work with the hob team directly. You are a name to us, not an issue number, and your feedback reaches the people who decide what ships next.
Fitted to your team
For teams, we help adapt hob to how you work, from onboarding to the workflows and automations your projects need.
Orchestration or collaboration
Most tools in this category orchestrate agents. They start sessions, isolate them, and show you their state. hob does that too. Its larger aim is collaboration: people and agents operate the same workspace.
In hob, an agent opens the preview, diff, or file beside its conversation. It reads and operates a live web page while you watch, annotates an image or PDF at the detail you need to judge, and asks you a question in place. It starts a second agent for a bounded task, such as a review, messages another agent pane, and files the issue it found. When it commits through hob, the commit links to the turn that produced it, so the reasoning is one click away months later.
It works in the other direction too. Mark up an image, PDF, web page, or spreadsheet to show an agent exactly what you mean, and send the markup with your request.
You choose how involved you are. Stay hands-on and review every step. Or go hands-off: give a task to a team of agents, let them divide and review the work, and run the repeatable parts as a scheduled automation. hob keeps the record either way.
Controlling agents or working with them
Paseo is built to reach your agents from anywhere. hob gives you that too, from a browser or your phone, and goes further inside the workspace. An agent opens the preview it built, points at the element it changed, asks you a question in place, and asks a second agent for a review. You direct the task and judge the result with the evidence already in view.
A record you can return to
When an agent commits or files an issue through hob, it links to the turn that produced it. Months later, you can open a commit and read the reasoning behind it. The whole workspace saves continuously, so after a restart you return to the same panes and context.
Choose hob if
- You want agents to coordinate and review each other as a standard part of the work.
- You want commits and issues linked to the conversations that produced them.
- You work with documents, PDFs, or spreadsheets beside code, and want to mark them up for your agents.
- You want a supported product with email support and a direct line to the team.
Questions
- Is hob open source like Paseo?
- No. hob is a paid product. Enterprise plans can include source access or escrow. Your conversations and history stay in a local database on your machine.
- Can I use hob from my phone, like Paseo?
- Yes, with Pro+. hob roam connects to the same hob Host from iOS, Android, or a browser, so you can answer an agent, follow a command's output, or review a result. Remote traffic is end-to-end encrypted before it reaches the relay.
- Can agents in hob talk to each other?
- Yes. An agent can start a delegate with a task, send a question to another agent pane, and receive its answer. Messages arrive at turn boundaries, so each agent finishes its current turn first.
Try hob with the agents you already use. Your first month is free.