PortBayvsClaude Squad
Claude SquadBoth run the agents you already use — Claude Code, Codex and friends — on multiple tasks at once. Claude Squad is a terminal app: each agent gets an isolated tmux session and its own git worktree, and you flip between sessions to review diffs. PortBay is a native macOS app where the unit of work is a card on a Kanban board, and the card runs inside a full local dev environment — managed PHP and Node, a per-project database, trusted HTTPS on a real .test domain and a public tunnel.
Which one is right for you
You want the full stack, open source.
You want tasks tracked as cards — assigned, commented, moved to Done — instead of as anonymous terminal sessions, and you want the agent building against a running app: a database it can query, a URL it can load, a tunnel you can share. You'd rather press play in a Mac app than maintain tmux, gh and worktree hygiene yourself.
It already fits your workflow.
You live in the terminal and want maximum parallel throughput: many agents at once, each in its own tmux session and git worktree, with an auto-accept background mode. You run Linux. And you want an open roster — Claude Squad names Claude Code, Codex, Gemini and Aider, but its `-p` flag launches any agent CLI you point it at, so it is not limited to a fixed list. You don't need the tool to run your database or serve the site.
Where PortBay and Claude Squad actually differ
The table below has the row-by-row detail. These are the three shapes it cannot draw: the job you already use one of them for, the job only one of them does, and what survives the move.
PortBay and Claude Squad overlap on the everyday job: a local site on a real domain, over HTTPS, with the services it needs. If that is all you need, either will do it.
Codex
CursorMove a card to To Do and PortBay launches Claude Code, Codex or Cursor against a project that is already running. Claude Squad has no board to dispatch from.
Point PortBay at the folders you already have. They stay where they are, .test domains are re-issued on the first run, and databases are imported rather than rebuilt.
Feature by feature
Claude Squad rows come from Claude Squad’s own site and docs, on the date below. PortBay rows come from the app’s source. We mark partial support honestly — including where the other side wins.
Claude Squad facts on this page were last checked against github.com/smtg-ai/claude-squad on . Pricing and limits change — check their site before you decide.
Already using Claude Squad?
There's nothing to import — Claude Squad manages sessions, not projects. Point PortBay at the same repository, press play, and the runtime, database and HTTPS come up around it. Then dispatch the same Claude Code or Codex from a card instead of a tmux pane. Plenty of developers will keep Claude Squad for high-throughput parallel worktree runs and use PortBay where the agent needs the app actually running.
Install PortBay and add the project folder your Claude Squad worktrees branch from.
Press play — PortBay provisions the runtime, database and HTTPS for that project.
Create a card, assign Claude Code or Codex, move it to Todo, and the agent works against the running app.
PortBay vs Claude Squad, in plain terms
Don’t see your question answered here? The docs go deeper — every feature, flag and failure mode.
Read the docsTwo things. First, a real task board: cards with comments, assignment and @mention dispatch, instead of a list of terminal sessions. Second, the environment — PortBay provisions managed PHP/Node runtimes, a per-project MySQL or PostgreSQL database, trusted HTTPS on a real .test domain, email capture and a one-click public tunnel, so the agent builds against a running application. Claude Squad isolates sessions with tmux and git worktrees but expects you to supply everything else.
Yes. Claude Squad is open source under AGPL-3.0 — the same license as PortBay — and free to install via Homebrew or its install script. It requires tmux and the GitHub CLI to be installed. The agents it runs (Claude Code, Codex, etc.) carry their own subscription or API costs, as they do with any orchestrator.
Not the same way. Claude Squad is built for parallelism: many agents at once, each in its own tmux session and git worktree, with an experimental auto-accept background mode. PortBay dispatches one agent per card against the project in place, with a lease so two agents never claim the same card. If maximum parallel throughput across worktrees is your priority, Claude Squad is built around it.
No. PortBay is a single native macOS app — no tmux, no gh, no terminal prerequisites. Claude Squad requires both tmux and the GitHub CLI before it can start sessions. PortBay does ship a CLI (the portbay command) for scripting, but it's optional.
Choose PortBay when the agent needs a real running environment — a database to query, a site to load over HTTPS, a tunnel to demo — and you want tasks tracked as cards in one macOS app that's also your daily local dev tool. Choose Claude Squad when you want terminal-native, many-agent parallel orchestration across git worktrees on macOS or Linux and you provide the runtime yourself.
Give your projects and your agents a real local home.
Download for macOSFree & open source · macOS 11+ on Apple Silicon · Pro from $10/mo