Hermes Agent vs OpenClaw
How the two compare on price, platforms, what they can act on and how they ask before acting. Facts come from each agent's sources page.
| Hermes Agent | OpenClaw | |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Nous Research | OpenClaw Foundation |
| Cheapest paid plan | Free | Free |
| Free tier | Yes: the agent is free and open source under the MIT license; the site states model providers and optional hosted services such as Nous Portal have their own pricing | Yes: the software is free and open source under the MIT license; the site states there is no subscription, hosted tier or paid version, and model provider usage is billed by the provider |
| Platforms | macOSWindowsLinuxSelf hostedCloud (Nous Portal)CLITelegramDiscordSlackWhatsAppSignalEmail | macOSWindowsLinuxiOSAndroidSelf hostedWhatsAppTelegramSlackDiscordiMessageSignalMicrosoft TeamsMatrix |
| Can act on | BrowserFilesCodeMessagesEmailWeb searchImages | EmailCalendarBrowserMessagesFilesCode |
| Approval model | Dangerous shell commands require approval. The default smart mode uses an auxiliary model to auto approve low risk commands, auto deny clearly dangerous ones and ask the user in uncertain cases; manual mode always asks and off (YOLO) disables prompts. Cron, single query and unattended sessions deny dangerous commands by default, a hardline blocklist can never be overridden, and checks are skipped inside container backends. | Configurable. Host commands run only when tool policy, the allowlist and optional user approval agree; modes are deny, allowlist, ask, auto and full. The docs state the default is security full with ask off on gateway and node hosts, and deny on sandbox hosts, so prompting depends on configuration. Approval prompts can be answered in the companion apps, the Control UI or supported chat channels. |
| Launched | Feb 25, 2026 | Nov 2025 |
| Last update | Oct 15, 2026: Hermes Agent v0.22.2 | Oct 15, 2026: openclaw 2026.10.4 |
See sources on the Hermes Agent and OpenClaw pages.
Track both every week