Hermes Agent vs OpenClaw: which open-source agent to run

Pick OpenClaw if you want the bigger project: it has mobile apps, more chat channels, the widest model support and a large plugin ecosystem, and it documents exactly what it sends home. Pick Hermes Agent if you want an agent that writes and refines its own skills, runs comfortably on a cheap server, and lets you run a team of separate agents, with an optional paid plan that bundles models and a hosted agent.

Both are free, MIT-licensed, self-hosted, bring-your-own-model agents that you talk to through chat apps, and both do everything on our checklist. The differences are in how they learn, where they run and how much they tell you about privacy.

The short version

	Hermes Agent	OpenClaw
Made by	Nous Research	OpenClaw Foundation (nonprofit)
First released	February 2026	November 2025
Standout idea	Writes and refines reusable skills	Large skill and plugin ecosystem
Runs on	Your computer, a VPS or serverless	Your computer
Phone apps	None; Android via Termux	iOS and Android
Paid option	Nous Portal from $20 a month	None
Telemetry policy	None, per its FAQ	Daily version check only; stats opt-in

How they learn

Hermes Agent’s pitch is that it improves itself. After complex tasks it writes a reusable skill, refines it as it uses it, keeps a curated memory and builds a profile of you across sessions (GitHub).

OpenClaw relies more on what others have built: a large library of community skills and 142 official plugins (integrations), plus its own memory system (docs). That ecosystem is a strength and a risk, since malicious third-party skills are a documented problem (Wikipedia).

Where they run and how you reach them

OpenClaw runs on your own computer, with desktop apps for macOS, Windows and Linux, and apps for iOS and Android (platforms). It works in 29 chat channels, including WhatsApp, Telegram, iMessage, Slack, Discord and Microsoft Teams.

Hermes Agent is built to live on a machine that stays on: your computer, a cheap VPS or serverless infrastructure, with a terminal UI, a local web dashboard and a desktop app. One gateway connects it to 20+ platforms, including Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Signal, email and SMS. iMessage needs a separate BlueBubbles server on a Mac (docs), and there’s no native mobile app.

If you want to talk to your agent mostly from your phone’s own apps, OpenClaw is easier. If you want it on a server that never sleeps, Hermes Agent is designed for that.

Running several agents

Both can. Hermes Agent runs separate agents as profiles, each with its own model, memory and skills, and they can talk to each other in group chats (profiles). OpenClaw supports several agents through multi-agent routing (docs).

Models and cost

Both are free and you pay for the model. OpenClaw supports 64 model and media providers plus local models through Ollama, LM Studio or vLLM. Model bills can run high: testers have reported spending over $100 in a day with expensive models.

Hermes Agent works with Nous Portal, OpenRouter, OpenAI or any compatible endpoint. Its optional Nous Portal plans ($20, $100 and $200 a month) bundle free and paid models, hosted web search, image generation and speech, and one cloud agent (Hermes Agent). That’s the closest either comes to a hosted version; OpenClaw has no paid tier or hosted service.

Privacy and safety

OpenClaw states its defaults: state, memory and credentials stay on your hardware, it sends only a daily version check you can switch off, and anonymous statistics are opt-in (OpenClaw). But sandboxing is off by default, so it can run commands on your machine unless you turn on approvals.

Hermes Agent keeps config, memory, skills and chat history on your machine when self-hosted, and its FAQ says it collects no telemetry and sends API calls only to the model provider you configure. We couldn’t confirm its default sandboxing. Both expect comfort with the command line.

Switching from OpenClaw to Hermes Agent

Hermes Agent can import settings, memories and skills from OpenClaw in one command (GitHub), so trying it doesn’t mean starting over. That makes it the obvious first test if OpenClaw’s security record or plugin churn bothers you. For other options, see OpenClaw alternatives and the best private AI assistant.