🦀 OpenClaw vs ⚙️ IronClaw
OpenClaw (open-source, self-hosted, model-agnostic) versus IronClaw (security-hardened openclaw variant for teams). Same task, different tradeoffs. Here's how to pick.
At a glance
| 🦀 OpenClaw | ⚙️ IronClaw | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free (you pay provider costs) | Free (self-hosted); Enterprise tier priced per seat |
| License | MIT | MIT or Apache-2.0 |
| Hosting | self-hosted | self-hosted |
| Requires GPU | No | No |
| Open source | Yes | Yes |
| Providers | Anthropic, OpenAI, Ollama, Ollama Cloud, OpenRouter | Anthropic, OpenAI, Azure OpenAI, Ollama |
| Skill count | ClawHub public registry (community-published; vet before installing) | IronHub catalog plus local SKILL.md folders (no published count) |
| Primary language | TypeScript | Rust |
| Time to first agent | 15 min | 20 min |
| Ease of setup | ●●○○○ | ●●●○○ |
| Power / flexibility | ●●●●● | ●●●●○ |
| Stability | ●●●●○ | ●●●●● |
| Privacy | ●●●●● | ●●●●● |
| Cost control | ●●●●● | ●●●●○ |
Pick OpenClaw if…
- Largest skill ecosystem of any agent platform
- Runs fully local with Ollama — no API bills
- Full source access — audit or fork anything
- You care about scheduled-automation, privacy, power-users, self-hosting, telegram-bots (OpenClaw covers these; IronClaw does not).
Wins on: power, cost
Pick IronClaw if…
- Secrets are encrypted and injected only at the network proxy, so tools never see them
- WASM-sandboxed tools with per-tool host allowlists
- IronHub-installed skills get 'installed' trust: the model can't self-activate them
- You care about teams, compliance, security-first, secrets-isolation, regulated-industries (IronClaw covers these; OpenClaw does not).
Wins on: ease, stability
Where each stumbles
OpenClaw weakness: Setup assumes comfort with a terminal
IronClaw weakness: Several CLI commands are still marked "not implemented yet" (channels list, hooks list, logs)
Which should you pick?
Short answer: if you're still deciding, run both for a week on a single real workflow you care about. The one you reach for on Friday is the right one. Switching costs depend on how much you have built inside each one: instruction files, skills and connectors do not move between products automatically.
Need harder numbers? See the benchmarks hub for side-by-side scores on SWE-bench, GAIA, and community tests.
← Back to all comparisons · Full guides: OpenClaw · IronClaw