Armadai vs Maestri: two canvases for coding agents

Maestri and Armadai both put coding agents on an infinite canvas, and they differ most in what one canvas holds and in how you pay. Maestri gives each project its own canvas, has a free tier and a one-time Pro licence, and runs on Windows and Linux as well as Apple Silicon Macs. Armadai puts several projects on the same canvas, with a task board, browser and code editor beside each project's agents, runs on macOS only, and is a subscription.

The comparison in one table

A canvas means something different in each app

In Maestri, a workspace is a project: a working directory with its own canvas. You place terminals, notes, file trees, sketches and portals on it, and you move between workspaces from the sidebar or with keyboard shortcuts. Workspaces you are not looking at keep running in the background. The free tier is limited to one workspace, so Pro is what you buy once you have a second project.

In Armadai, each project folder becomes a workspace, and several workspaces sit on the same canvas. You zoom out to see every project and zoom in to work in one, or turn on Tab View to give each workspace its own tab. You can also keep separate canvases, for example one for your product and one for client work. A sidebar lists agent sessions across all of them as working, idle or waiting for approval, and you can answer a waiting agent from there.

If you work on one project at a time and switch between them, Maestri's layout matches that. If you want the agent on a client project to stay visible while you are inside your own product, that is what Armadai's layout is for.

What Maestri has that Armadai's homepage does not list

• Windows and Linux builds. Maestri for Windows needs Windows 11 on x64, and the Linux build covers x64 and arm64.
• A free tier and a one-time price. Free includes one workspace with unlimited agents. Pro is a single $18 payment for unlimited workspaces on two devices, with seven days free first. Purchases are final and there are no refunds.
• No account and no telemetry. Maestri says the app never phones home and never asks who you are.
• Roles and connections for any CLI agent. You define reusable roles, then connect terminals so one agent can prompt another. The mechanism works at the command-line level, so Claude Code can talk to Codex or OpenCode.
• Floors. A floor is another canvas for the same project on its own branch, held as a Git worktree and cloned copy-on-write where the disk supports it. You land it by merging locally or by opening a pull request.
• Portals that hold devices. As well as a browser, a portal can hold an iOS Simulator, an Android emulator or a physical Android phone, and a connected agent can operate it.
• Remote environments. A workspace can run on an SSH server, in a Docker container or sandbox, or through a custom runtime.
• Routines. Prompts that run on an agent at a set interval.
• Ombro. An on-device assistant on the Mac that summarises what an agent did when it finishes. It needs macOS 26 or later.
• A phone app you can install today. Maestri Remote is in public beta on TestFlight. Armadai for iPhone has not shipped.

What Armadai has that Maestri's documentation does not list

• Task boards with hand-off. A board has board, backlog, table, calendar and dashboard views. You can hand a task to Claude Code or Codex; the run gets its own Git worktree and comes back as a draft pull request for you to review.
• Computer use for the lead agent. The master agent opens workspaces, launches and messages agents and arranges the canvas from one sidebar conversation. If you enable computer use, it can also click, type and scroll in apps on your Mac.
• Environment Vault. Secret values are stored in the macOS Keychain and scoped to the app, a canvas or one workspace.
• Optional terminal recording. Terminal output can be saved locally, off by default, with a retention window and a disk limit.
• Intel Macs and an older macOS. Armadai supports Apple Silicon and Intel Macs on macOS 14 or later. Maestri's Mac build lists macOS 15.4 and Apple Silicon.

What the two have in common

Both are native Mac apps that run the agent command-line tools you already have installed, under your own accounts. Both let you draw on the canvas, keep notes beside agents, preview a site in an embedded browser, edit code without leaving the app, and save a layout you can come back to. Both have a lead-agent feature: Maestri's Maestro Mode turns one terminal into a manager that recruits other agents, and Armadai's master agent does the equivalent from a sidebar conversation. Both can isolate parallel work in Git worktrees, and both tell you when an agent is waiting for you.

How the prices compare over time

Maestri Pro is $18, paid once, and the free tier may be all you need if you only ever have one project open. Armadai is a subscription with no free plan: $20 a month, or $120 a year, which works out to $10 a month.

Maestri costs less however long you use it. The question is whether what the subscription pays for matters to you: the multi-project canvas, task boards with hand-off, and the master agent. Both let you try before you pay. Maestri gives seven days of Pro and then sells the licence with no refunds. Armadai's 7-day free trial requires a payment method, and annual payments carry a 30-day money-back guarantee. Current plans are under pricing.

Which one to choose

Choose Maestri if you use Windows or Linux, if you want to pay once or not at all, if you do not want to create an account, if you use OpenCode or another CLI agent alongside Claude Code and Codex, or if wiring agents to each other with roles is the main thing you want from a canvas.

Choose Armadai if you run agents in several projects at the same time and want them in one view, if you plan work on a board and hand tasks to agents from it, or if you have an Intel Mac. If neither canvas fits, Conductor alternatives covers apps built around one worktree per task, and terminals.