OpenClaw vs. Hermes: How They Actually Differ, and How I'd Install Hermes on a VPS

Alexandru Paduraru -

Legend

Introduction

I keep getting the same question from builders: "OpenClaw or Hermes?" Both are self-hosted AI agents. Both run on your own box. And on a feature list they look close enough that people freeze.

Here is the short version. OpenClaw is a personal assistant built to reach you everywhere you already chat. Hermes is an agent built to remember you and get better the longer you use it. That one difference decides almost everything else.

So the real question isn't "which has more features." It's simpler: do you want broad reach across your apps, or a single agent that builds continuity with you over months? Answer that and the choice mostly makes itself.

Background of each project

OpenClaw

OpenClaw calls itself a personal, open-source AI assistant. It runs on a local machine or a server and plugs into the messaging platforms you already use. The whole pitch is about being available where you work, not locked inside one proprietary chat window.

Read the docs and you can feel the priority. This isn't a research toy. It's a self-hosted assistant for daily work: install it, connect your channels, link a model provider, route tasks through it. Operations-first.

If you want the fast path, we package OpenClaw over at Creative Tim so you can install and run it without wiring everything from scratch: creative-tim.com/ui/openclaw.

Hermes

Hermes is built by Nous Research, and it sells itself on one idea: it grows with you. It doesn't just answer and forget. It keeps context across sessions, learns from what you did before, and builds its own skills over time.

That gives Hermes a real "agent identity." The story here is memory, recall, and a built-in learning loop. If you want a long-lived assistant living on a laptop, a homelab, or a VPS, that's the part that matters.

How they work

OpenClaw sits between you, your channels, and your model provider, like a hub. The flow is simple: connect a model, switch on a channel or two, let the gateway handle the traffic. When the config is stable, OpenClaw quietly translates whatever lands in your apps into actions and replies. Predictable. Boring in the good way.

Hermes runs more like a persistent agent. It treats your interactions as a thread, not a pile of unrelated messages. Memory, reusable skills, a learning loop, so today's work builds on last week's. In practice it stops feeling like a message router and starts feeling like a teammate who actually remembers your projects.

Here's the mental model I use: OpenClaw is an assistant gateway, Hermes is an agent workspace. Both self-host. Both talk to outside model providers. Both run fine on always-on hardware. They just chase different kinds of value.

OpenClaw vs. Hermes, side by side

Four things tell you what you need: philosophy, memory, install style, and the workload each one is good at.

Area OpenClaw Hermes
Core idea A personal assistant built around cross-platform access and real integrations. A self-improving agent built around memory, skills, and continuity.
Interaction style Gateway-style. Routes work through your connected channels. Agent-style. Long-lived context and learning that stacks up.
Install culture Local or server, simple install options, quick channel setup. Linux, macOS, WSL2, Docker, remote hosting. Built for the long haul.
Memory and learning Great for automation and access. Not marketed as self-improving. The whole point. Persistent memory and a built-in learning loop.
Best fit You want one assistant across many apps. You want one agent that remembers and gets sharper over time.

The trade-off is right there. OpenClaw wins on breadth, channels, and "just make it work across my apps." Hermes wins on continuity, recall, and an agent that earns its keep over time. A team could run both. But if you're one person making a call, ask yourself this: do you want reliable orchestration, or a deeper agent that grows with you?

Where to install: your laptop or a VPS

Both run on a normal machine or a VPS. The reason you'd pick each one is different. Local is for quick tests, private experiments, getting your hands dirty. A VPS is for when the agent needs to stay online, hold its state, and answer even with your laptop shut.

OpenClaw gives you three install routes in its docs: a one-line installer, an npm path, and a build-from-source path for developers. Easy to trial on your desktop, easy to move to a server later once you've settled on a model and your channels. If you'd rather skip the wiring, the Creative Tim build at creative-tim.com/ui/openclaw gets you running in a few clicks.

Hermes lists more paths: a one-line installer, pip, Docker, SSH-based hosting flows, Daytona, and Modal. Its quickstart pushes one thing first: get a single clean conversation working before you bolt on providers, gateways, and messaging. Follow that order. Hermes is far easier to debug when the core runtime is proven before any integrations show up.

So: local install if you're exploring. VPS if you want persistence, scheduling, remote access, an assistant that behaves like infrastructure instead of an app you open now and then.

Step-by-step: installing Hermes on an Ubuntu VPS

My setup is deliberately conservative. Clean Ubuntu server, a dedicated non-root user, the official installer, one model provider, confirm the CLI works, and only then add the gateway as a background service. Less debugging noise, and you avoid the classic mistake of exposing services before the base install even runs.

If you'd rather watch it than read it, here's a walkthrough that covers the same ground: youtube.com/watch?v=Y_N9cU2Dxrw.

1. Prepare the server

Ubuntu 24.04 is a safe default. Hermes officially supports Linux and wants a modern Python environment. Update the system, create a non-root user, copy over the SSH config. Running the agent as root every day buys you nothing and adds risk on a public VPS.

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
sudo adduser hermes
sudo usermod -aG sudo hermes
sudo rsync --archive --chown=hermes:hermes ~/.ssh /home/hermes
su - hermes

2. Lock down the basics

Before any app software, allow SSH and keep the firewall tight. Dashboards and helper ports can come later, ideally behind a reverse proxy or an SSH tunnel, not wide open to the internet.

sudo apt install -y ufw
sudo ufw allow OpenSSH
sudo ufw --force enable

3. Install Hermes

The docs give you a one-line installer for Linux, and it handles most of the setup for you. Install Git and curl first, then run it from the Hermes repo.

sudo apt install -y git curl
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/main/scripts/install.sh | bash
source ~/.bashrc

Then check the command exists and run the built-in diagnostic.

hermes --version
hermes doctor

4. Configure the model provider

The quickstart says set up the model layer early, with hermes model or the wider hermes setup flow. Hermes supports OpenRouter, Anthropic, OpenAI-compatible endpoints, Gemini, Hugging Face, and Nous Portal. Your pick comes down to budget, context window, and tool support.

hermes model
# or
hermes setup

With the provider in place, start a first conversation from the CLI and check that session continuity actually works.

hermes
hermes --continue

5. Add the gateway for always-on use

Once the CLI behaves, set up the gateway so Hermes stays available as a service. The messaging docs give you systemd commands like hermes gateway install, hermes gateway start, and hermes gateway stop for user-level service control.

hermes gateway setup
hermes gateway install
hermes gateway start

On most VPS setups, turn on user linger so the service survives logout and reboots for that account.

sudo loginctl enable-linger hermes
systemctl --user enable hermes-gateway
systemctl --user status hermes-gateway
journalctl --user -u hermes-gateway -f

Running Hermes without breaking things

A VPS makes Hermes far more useful, because the agent is finally always on. But now you're a server admin too. Two habits cover most of the risk: keep external exposure minimal, and prove the base agent works before you add dashboards, bots, or API bridges.

Prefer Docker if isolation and portability matter more to you than a host-level install. Hermes ships a Docker Compose example with a gateway service and a dashboard service, and that example keeps the dashboard bound to localhost on purpose. Copy that default even if you know what you're doing. A private dashboard reached through an SSH tunnel beats an exposed management port on a cheap VPS every time.

There's a wider lesson hiding in the OpenClaw vs. Hermes contrast. OpenClaw deployment is about turning on channels and widening reach. Hermes deployment is about protecting a stable, long-lived runtime so memory and skills have time to pay off. OpenClaw rewards connectivity fast. Hermes rewards uptime slowly.

Which one to pick

Pick OpenClaw if you want breadth. Multiple messaging surfaces, practical automation, an assistant you can reach through the apps you already live in. It fits when the question is "how do tasks move across my channels?" and not "how do I raise a learning agent?" And if you want the shortest road to trying it, grab the Creative Tim build: creative-tim.com/ui/openclaw.

Pick Hermes if you want depth. Persistent context, reusable skills, a system that gets more tailored to you over time. It really shines on an Ubuntu VPS, because that box lets Hermes stay online, hold continuity, and behave like personal infrastructure instead of a weekend experiment.

One sentence to take with you: OpenClaw is the better assistant hub, Hermes is the better long-lived agent.

Thanks for reading! If you have feedback, corrections, or you've run either of these on your own VPS, I'd love to hear how it went. You can find me here: Twitter/X and LinkedIn.