Made for Swiss self-employed & SMEsSide-by-side comparison
| Aspect | 🦞 OpenClaw | Hermes Agent |
|---|---|---|
| Created by | Peter Steinberger / OpenClaw Foundation | Nous Research |
| License | MIT (open source) | MIT (open source) |
| First released | Nov 2025 (as "Warelay") | Feb 2026 |
| Primary interface | Chat apps (WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal, Discord…) | Chat apps + CLI, TUI, desktop, dashboard, IDE |
| Runs on | Your machine / server (macOS, Linux, Windows, Raspberry Pi) | Your machine / server (Linux, macOS, Windows, WSL) |
| Memory | Persistent memory, persona, 24/7 context | Persistent memory, pluggable backends |
| Skills / learning | SKILL.md skills, large community ecosystem | Self-creating skills (built-in learning loop) |
| Scheduling | Heartbeats, cron, background tasks | Cron scheduling, webhooks |
| Sandboxing | Windows Execution Containers (via Microsoft) | 5 sandbox backends (local/Docker/SSH/Singularity/Modal) |
| Local models | Community adaptations (e.g. DeepSeek) | Native support, 20+ providers incl. local |
| Companion apps | macOS, Windows, iOS, Android | macOS, Windows, Linux desktop |
| Vibe | Polished personal assistant, huge community 🦞 | Self-improving agent that grows with you |
Which should you choose?
Choose OpenClaw if…
- You live in chat apps (WhatsApp/Telegram) and want a polished, turnkey assistant.
- You value a very large community and lots of ready-made skills.
- You want first-class companion apps on phone and desktop.
Choose Hermes if…
- You want an agent that learns your workflows and saves them as skills.
- You need fine-grained sandboxing and provider flexibility (incl. local models).
- You're comfortable in a terminal or want IDE integration.
The honest answer: they're close cousins — one early user even watched his OpenClaw and Hermes agents talk to each other. Try the one that matches your daily habits; both are free to experiment with, and you can run both.