Manta UI vs Conductor

Conductor runs coding agents on your Mac and gives you a polished Mac app to steer them. Manta runs the same agents on a box you own and gives every device the same window. Both target someone who wants parallel agents. Here is the honest difference.

Verdict

Pick ConductorIf you live on macOS, want a polished Mac-native IDE with diff review and inline comments back to the agent, and the lack of a phone app is fine. Conductor's Mac app, diff review and PR/merge tail are the strongest parts of the product.
Pick MantaIf you want agents on a Linux box that outlives the laptop, a phone app that can approve a command, and self-hosted open source with no seat count.
OverlapBoth run Claude Code in chat panels with a worktree per session. The trade-off is where the work lives and what happens when you close the lid.

Side by side

What is the same, and what differs

Conductor is the better-known Mac app. Manta is the box that outlives the laptop. Here is the row-by-row.

	Manta UI	Conductor
Agents run on	Your box (Linux or macOS)	Your Mac
Architecture	Box is the source of truth	Mac is the source of truth
Keeps running with every client closed	Yes (default, free)	Conductor Cloud, paid beta
Phone client	The full app	None shipped
Approve a command from your phone	One tap	No
Tells you when the agent is blocked	Push to the right device	No
Remote access	Detected and set up	Conductor Cloud (beta, Pro, GitHub-only, 10-workspace cap)
Platforms	Linux or macOS box, macOS desktop, iPhone app, browser	macOS only. not available for Windows or Linux yet. conductor.build/docs
Permissions model	Explicit permission cards, yolo opt-in	Agents run without sandboxing
Sandboxing	Commands ask first	Workspace isolation is development isolation, not a security boundary
Diff review / inline annotation	No	Yes, with inline comments back to the agent
Built-in code editor	Terminal + chat only	Mac-native, polished
Agent runtimes supported	2 (Claude Code, opencode)	2 (Claude Code)
Git worktree per session	Yes	Yes
Real tmux underneath	Yes, you can SSH in	No
Agent scheduling, webhooks, secrets	Yes	No
Linear / GitHub integration depth	Basic	Deep
CONDUCTOR_PORT style dev port routing	No	Yes
Account required	No	Yes
Licence	MIT	Proprietary, closed source
Funding	Solo	Melty Labs, YC S24, $24M raised
Maturity	New	More mature, polished
Price	Free	Free, plus Pro tier (no published prices)

Conductor is the better Mac IDE. Manta is the box that outlives it. The trade-off is not subtle.

Where Conductor is better

The five things we concede plainly

Conductor's strongest surface is the editor and the diff review. We are not pretending otherwise.

›Diff review with inline comments back to the agent. Review a change, leave a comment, and the agent reads it. Manta has none of this.
›The PR/merge/checks tail. The whole pipeline is in the same window. Manta leaves you to do that in your normal git host.
›Linear and GitHub depth. Conductor's first-party integration with both is real. Manta does not match it.
›CONDUCTOR_PORT-style dev port routing. Routing and exposing a local dev server is built in. Manta has a public-page tool for the agent, not a per-process port system.
›Polish and funding. Conductor is YC S24 and has raised $24M. The Mac app looks the part. Manta is solo and rougher.

Conductor on its own security stance: Agents run directly on your system without sandboxing. And on the related boundary: Workspace isolation is development isolation, not a security boundary. conductor.build/docs/security

Where Manta is better

The architectural difference

Conductor sells the same outcome Manta gives you by default, but only as a paid beta.

›The agent outlives the laptop for free. Conductor pitches close your laptop during a task and the agent keeps going as the reason to buy Conductor Cloud. conductor.build/cloud Manta does that by default, on your own box, with no Pro tier.
›A phone app that can actually approve a command. Conductor ships no phone app at all. Manta's phone app is the same code as the desktop: full transcript, live output, dictation, upload, and one-tap approvals.
›Self-hosted, MIT, no Pro tier. Conductor is closed source, Pro-gated, GitHub-only and capped at 10 workspaces on Cloud. Manta is MIT, runs on any hardware you own, and has no workspace cap.

Architecture

Where the work actually lives

Conductor's Mac app is the source of truth. Manta's box is. The shape of the failure modes follows from that.

Conductor: the Mac app is the source of truth

   Conductor Mac app   ← owns agents, files, diffs
        │
   Conductor Cloud (paid beta)
     GitHub-only, 10-workspace cap
     no phone app, no browser client

  close the Mac and the agents
  stop, unless you are paying
  for Cloud.

Manta: the box is the source of truth

   Linux box or Mac      ← owns tmux, files, agents
        │      │      │
   desktop   phone   browser
  (full app) (full)  (full)

  close every client and the
  work continues, on free,
  open source, MIT.

Coexistence

Can I use both?

Yes. They do not share state, and they target different surfaces.

Conductor runs on your Mac for editor-heavy work with diff review. Manta installs on the same Mac (acting as its own box) or on a Linux VPS for long-running tasks that have to outlive the laptop. They use different ports, different tmux sessions and different project files. The Conductor Mac app does not talk to the Manta box; the Manta box does not read the Conductor workspace.

FAQ

What people ask before they switch

Five questions, answered in full.

Is Manta a fork of Conductor?

No. They are separate products from separate teams. Manta is MIT and solo. Conductor is closed source, YC S24, and has raised $24M. Both run Claude Code in a chat panel.

Why is Conductor macOS only?

Per Conductor's own docs: not available for Windows or Linux yet. conductor.build/docs Manta's box runs on Linux or macOS today, which is the path to running agents on a server.

Does Conductor's "Cloud" beta do what Manta does?

It tries to, with restrictions. Conductor Cloud is in beta, requires the Pro tier, supports GitHub only, and caps you at 10 workspaces. Manta runs on your own box, is free, supports any agent runtime that ships a CLI, and has no workspace cap.

Is Conductor more secure than Manta?

No, and Conductor says so itself: Agents run directly on your system without sandboxing and Workspace isolation is development isolation, not a security boundary. conductor.build/docs/security Manta's default is that every command shows up as a permission card you answer.

Which one should I pick if I edit heavily and run on macOS?

Conductor. Its Mac-native editor, diff review with inline comments back to the agent, and Linear/GitHub depth are the strongest parts of its product. Manta is for when the work has to outlive the laptop, or when you want a phone client.