OpenClaw vs Hermes Agent: Which AI Agent Should You Use? (2026)
Facts checked
OpenClaw vs Hermes at a glance
- Who makes it — OpenClaw was created by Peter Steinberger and is now run by the nonprofit OpenClaw Foundation. Hermes Agent is built by Nous Research, the lab behind the Hermes models.
- Cost — Both are MIT open source with no paid tier — you pay only for model tokens. Beau's OpenClaw setup runs about $3 a day in API calls.
- Setup — Hermes installs in about 10 minutes (15 with Hermes Desktop). OpenClaw takes longer and, in Beau's experience from 40+ one-on-one install calls, tends to break on updates.
- Memory — Hermes curates its own memory and searches past sessions — v0.15 cut session search from ~90 seconds to ~20 milliseconds. On OpenClaw, Beau had to build a four-layer memory system himself.
- Skills — Hermes creates skills from experience and improves them as it works. OpenClaw's skills are static unless you build that loop, but its ClawHub marketplace is the biggest ecosystem.
- Channels — Both cover Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, iMessage and Teams. OpenClaw lists 20+ platforms; Hermes about 28, including Signal, Matrix, SMS and email.
- Desktop app — Hermes Desktop (Windows 11 and Apple Silicon Macs) ships with about 90–100 preloaded skills. OpenClaw uses a browser Control UI that Beau calls clunky by comparison.
- Security — OpenClaw has published 722 GitHub security advisories since January 2026, and a January 2026 audit found 341 malicious skills among 2,857 on ClawHub — vet every skill you install. Hermes added prompt-injection defenses in v0.15.
- Switching — Running "hermes claw migrate" imports your OpenClaw SOUL.md, memories, skills and API keys into Hermes.
- Release pace — Both ship constantly: OpenClaw near-daily date-versioned releases (v2026.10.3 on October 13, 2026), Hermes every two to three weeks (v0.22.1 on October 14, 2026).
Beau's take after months of running both: “OpenClaw's becoming infrastructure and Hermes is becoming the continuity agent.” Don't pick a team. If you already run OpenClaw, keep it and test Hermes alongside it; if you're starting fresh, Hermes is the faster setup and the easier agent to live with day to day.
Both let you choose the model. Beau runs Hermes on a ChatGPT/Codex plan. If you want to use a Claude subscription inside a third-party agent, read our Claude subscription guide on the blog first — Anthropic's rules changed several times in 2026.
Some early comparisons (including our own March videos) said Hermes only ran one agent. That's no longer true: Hermes added a multi-agent Kanban board in v0.15 and live subagents in v0.22.
