Short answer. Conductor is an established Mac app for running coding agents in parallel, and its local use is free. If you want that today, or you want cloud workspaces and to work with a team, pick Conductor. Vakr is for one person who wants to keep everything on their own Machines and wants proof attached to each piece of agent work. I make Vakr, so weigh this accordingly.
What Conductor is, and what it does well
Conductor's line is "Run parallel coding agents on your Mac." Its docs say it lets you run Claude Code, Codex, Cursor and OpenCode in parallel, and that each task gets its own workspace, branch, files, terminal, diff and review path. Workspaces are separate checkouts made with git worktrees.
Things I think Conductor does well:
- A generous free tier. Free covers running multiple agents in parallel in local workspaces on your Mac, with your own subscriptions and keys.
- A Checks tab. It gathers what tells you a workspace is ready to merge: git status, pull request details, CI and status checks, deployments, GitHub comments and review threads, and todos. The docs say Conductor may block or discourage merging when required work is still open, such as unresolved todos or failed checks.
- Cloud workspaces. On Pro, a workspace can run in a cloud sandbox with 8 cores and 16GB of memory and keep working after you close the app. Vakr has nothing hosted.
- Working with others. Pro includes multiplayer and live collaboration for up to 5 Pro users. Teams and Enterprise plans add an admin portal and SSO.
Conductor and Vakr side by side
| Conductor | Vakr | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A Mac app for running coding agents in parallel, each in an isolated workspace, with diff review and merge | A Mac app that tracks your Projects and agents, and checks agent work before you merge |
| Price | Free for local workspaces. Pro $50 a month: cloud workspaces, multiplayer, API, mobile app. Teams $60 a month per user. Enterprise custom | Free on your own Machines. Pro $99 a year, not on sale yet. Founding licence $149 once. Everything unlocked during early access |
| Licence | Not stated on the pages I read | Not open source. Early access builds only |
| Platforms | Mac. A mobile app on Pro | macOS 15 or later. A Linux VPS can join as a Machine |
| Agents | Claude Code, Codex, Cursor and OpenCode | Claude Code and Codex natively, and about 22 more over ACP, OpenCode among them |
| Where your code goes | Local workspaces run on your Mac. Cloud workspaces run in sandboxes hosted in us-east-1, and the pricing page says cloud chat messages are stored on Conductor's servers, unlike local sessions | It stays on your Mac. Paired Machines talk directly over your own network. No account |
| Checks on agent work | The Checks tab: git status, CI and status checks, review threads and todos. It may block a merge on failed checks. I couldn't find tests-first or a check of the agent's own claims in the docs | Tests first with tamper detection, claims checked against what ran, and, when you ask for it, an agent from another vendor trying to break the diff (on every run with Pro) |
| Across several computers | Cloud workspaces on Pro. The pricing page says you can't yet use your own cloud machines | Pair another Mac or a Linux VPS with a code |
Pick Conductor if…
- You want to run several agents in parallel on your Mac today, for free.
- You want a cloud workspace that keeps going when your laptop is closed, and you would sooner pay than run a server.
- You work with other people and want live collaboration, an admin portal or SSO.
- Your repos have CI on GitHub and you want its status next to the diff.
Pick Vakr if…
- You work alone and want your own second Mac or VPS to do the overnight work, with nothing hosted by anyone else.
- You want the agent to write failing tests first, approve a few short tests yourself, and have the agent unable to change them.
- You want a claim like "all tests pass" compared with the command that ran and its exit code.
- You want an agent from a different vendor to try to break each diff.
What Vakr does not do
- It is in early access. There is a waitlist, and you cannot download it today. Conductor you can.
- Nothing is hosted. No cloud workspaces. If your Mac is asleep and you have no second Machine, nothing runs.
- It is for one person. No multiplayer, no admin portal, no SSO.
- It needs a Mac. macOS 15 or later. A Linux VPS can join as a Machine, but the app itself runs only on a Mac.
- There is no iPhone app. Your phone gets a page over Tailscale.
If that still sounds like a fit, the waitlist is at vakr.app.
Checked on 10 October 2026. Sources for Conductor: conductor.build, its pricing page, the docs, the Checks reference and the page on isolated workspaces.
Questions
Is Vakr a Conductor alternative?
For one person working locally, yes. Both give each task its own worktree and a place to review the result. Conductor adds cloud workspaces and collaboration. Vakr adds its own checks.
Conductor has a Checks tab. How is Vakr different?
From its docs, Conductor's Checks tab shows signals that already exist for a workspace, such as CI results, review threads and todos. Vakr produces its own evidence for each run: tests you approved before any code was written, and a comparison between what the agent said and what it ran.
Which costs less?
Locally, both are free. Conductor Pro is $50 a month and buys cloud workspaces, collaboration, the API and the mobile app. Vakr Pro will be $99 a year and buys automatic second-agent checks, the track record and pacing.
Guides to working with coding agents, with or without Vakr: the blog.