linkgo

Caveman vs Paper: Features, Pricing & Which Is Better (2026)

A side-by-side comparison of Caveman and Paper — features, pricing, and ideal use cases — to help you decide which AI tool fits your workflow.

C

Caveman

Julius Brussee

Freemium

Efficiency stack that caches, compresses, and routes AI traffic to cut LLM output tokens by up to 65% with verified savings.

Key features

  • Caveman Skill: MIT-licensed Claude Code skill that teaches 30+ agents (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, and more) to answer in a compressed dialect, cutting output tokens ~65% while keeping code and errors byte-exact.
  • Local Proxy Wrap: One command (`caveman claude`) launches your agent with recoverable local context compression — no account required, BYOK, engine stores original bytes before lossy replacement.
  • Recoverable Context Compression: Engine recognizes logs, JSON, code, diffs, and tables, then sends smaller eligible context to the model and can restore the originals on demand.
  • Agent SDK: `@caveman-ai/agent` TypeScript SDK adds catalog-price guards, per-request token bills, and eval-gated context plans to production agents.
  • Cave Score & Ledger: Inferred local savings score and a verified 'causal-cache' ledger on paid tiers so you can prove cut tokens and cut dollars.
  • Managed Cloud Gateway: Point traffic at one URL and caching / compression / routing run eval-gated on autopilot, with a synced savings dashboard.
  • Browser Extension: Ships for ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini so end-user chats benefit from the same output compression without any code changes.
  • Enterprise & OEM: Same stack self-hosted in your cloud or datacenter with signed savings receipts, zero data retention, and OEM embed options.

Best for

  • LLM Bill Reduction: Cap OpenAI, Anthropic, or Google spend without changing model choice by cutting output tokens per response across your agent fleet.
  • Coding Agent Efficiency: Install the skill to make Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, and other CLI agents produce terse, byte-exact answers so long tasks fit in context.
  • Provider Wrap for Production Agents: Use the SDK to add per-call token bills, catalog-price guards, and eval-gated context plans to LangChain / custom agents.
  • Central Cost Gateway: Point every agent in the org at Caveman Cloud so caching and routing are enforced from one URL with a shared dashboard.
  • On-Prem or OEM Embed: Ship the Enterprise stack inside a regulated network or embed it in your own AI product with signed savings receipts and zero data retention.
  • Chat-App Compression: Install the browser extension for ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini to keep casual chats short, cheaper, and inside the context window.
View Caveman details
Paper logo

Paper

Paper / paper-design (open-source team)

Freemium

Modern design tool to create, share, and ship designs with exportable web assets, shaders, fonts, and developer-focused integrations.

Key features

  • Visual Shader Designer: A GUI for building zero-dependency HTML canvas shaders that can be exported as lightweight JS or React components and used as animated or static backgrounds in web projects.
  • Code-First Exports: Direct export of design artifacts to production-ready code and npm-installable packages (e.g., @paper-design/shaders) so assets integrate easily into developer workflows.
  • Font and Typography Tooling: Shipable type assets including Paper Mono and a maintained fork of opentype.js to generate and package fonts and typographic resources for projects.
  • Framework Integrations: Official or community support for React (shaders-react) and intent for broader framework compatibility, enabling designers to produce components that plug directly into web frameworks.
  • Agent & Plugin Extensibility: Agent-plugins and other extension points to connect Paper into automation or agent harnesses, enabling programmatic workflows and custom integrations.
  • Open-Source Libraries: Companion repositories (shaders, paper-mono, google-fonts-scripts) and example projects that provide reusable building blocks and encourage reproducible, performant outputs.
  • Lightweight Performance Focus: Assets and generated code emphasize minimal runtime cost and wide browser/device support to keep production pages fast.
  • Design-to-Production Workflow: Tools and export paths intended to reduce handoff friction—designs become directly usable assets with documented examples and React/vanilla JS usage snippets.
  • Zero-dependency HTML canvas shaders usable directly in websites
  • Framework bindings: @paper-design/shaders (vanilla), @paper-design/shaders-react (React)
  • Exportable, lightweight shader code designed to be embedded in any codebase
  • Animated and static shader variants with configurable parameters (colors, distortion, swirl, speed, scale, etc.)
  • Interactive documentation and examples for React and vanilla usage
  • NPM-distributable packages (pin dependencies recommended; breaking changes under 0.0.x)
  • Open-source companion repositories: shaders, shaders-react, paper-mono (assets), google-fonts-scripts, opentype.js (fork)
  • Wide browser and device support emphasis and performance-oriented implementations
  • Tooling and sample scripts for font and asset generation (google-fonts-scripts)
  • Agent integration intent via agent-plugins repository (connect Paper to agent harnesses)

Best for

  • Animated Website Backgrounds: Designers build visually-rich, performant shader backgrounds in Paper and export them as lightweight React components or vanilla JS for production sites.
  • Branding and Logo Effects: Create dynamic logo treatments (e.g., liquid-metal effects) using Paper Shaders and export code that developers can embed without heavy dependencies.
  • Typography Packaging: Design or customize monospace/type assets (Paper Mono) and produce packaged fonts and generated files for use across products and documentation.
  • Design-to-Code Handoff: Produce design assets that are directly consumable by engineering teams—npm packages, code snippets, and framework-ready components—reducing manual translation work.
  • Rapid Prototyping for Web Interfaces: Prototype interactive visuals and masked textures in Paper, export them, and integrate quickly into React or vanilla JS prototypes.
  • Extendable Automation Workflows: Use agent-plugins to connect Paper into CI/CD or automation tooling to programmatically generate assets, run builds, or wire designs into deployment pipelines.
  • Open-Source Component Reuse: Leverage Paper’s companion libraries (shaders, scripts, tooling) to assemble consistent visual systems across multiple web projects while keeping assets lightweight.
  • Add lightweight animated or static textured backgrounds to websites via canvas shaders
  • Design visual assets in Paper and export directly as code to embed in web applications
  • Use React components from @paper-design/shaders-react to integrate shader visuals into React UIs
  • Generate font/mono assets and SVGs using google-fonts-scripts for web typography workflows
  • Use opentype.js fork for tree-shakeable font handling in front-end projects
  • Integrate Paper-produced visuals into any front-end stack (Vanilla JS, React, potential Vue support)
View Paper details