OpenClaw vs Hermes Agent vs 5dive: which self-hosted AI agent fits?
openclaw, hermes agent and 5dive are all open source (MIT) and run on your own machine. openclaw is a personal assistant across 20+ chat apps. hermes agent is a self-improving agent that works with any model. 5dive runs
openclaw, hermes agent and 5dive are all open source (MIT) and run on your own machine. openclaw is a personal assistant across 20+ chat apps. hermes agent is a self-improving agent that works with any model. 5dive runs a team of different agent CLIs, openclaw and hermes included, each as its own linux user on one task list.
i run 13 agents that way on one 4-core server. last month the one that reviews the others sent work back 354 times before it closed.
at a glance
| OpenClaw | Hermes Agent | 5dive | |
|---|---|---|---|
| License | MIT | MIT | MIT |
| Runs on | Your computer or server | Your machine, or Hermes Cloud (paid) | Your Linux server, or one we host |
| Several agents | Isolated agents in one gateway, sub-agents, optional Kanban board | Profiles, subagents, Kanban board | A team with an org chart on one task list |
| Agent runtimes | Its own, plus Claude Code, Codex and others through ACP | Its own | Claude Code, Codex, Hermes, OpenClaw, OpenCode, Pi and more as members |
| Keeping agents apart | One gateway process, sandbox optional | One OS user for all profiles, sandbox optional | Each agent is its own Linux user |
| Claude plan | Pro and Max by reusing a Claude Code login | Max extra-usage credits only | The real Claude Code CLI on your plan |
| Apps | Desktop, iOS, Android, 20+ chat apps | Desktop, 20+ chat apps | Web app and Telegram |
pick openclaw if
you want one personal assistant that answers you in WhatsApp, Telegram, iMessage and 20+ other chat apps, with phone apps.
pick hermes agent if
you want one agent that learns its own skills and runs on any model, and you may want Nous to host it for you.
pick 5dive if
you want a team of different agents, each on the plan or model you choose, kept apart as separate linux users, handing work to each other and checking it before it closes. openclaw and hermes can be members of that team.
try it
curl -fsSL https://install.5dive.ai | sudo bash
sudo 5dive init
a 1 GB server is enough to start. the full comparison, with sources: 5dive.ai/compare/openclaw-vs-hermes. the code: github.com/5dive-ai/5dive.
Originally published by Dev.to AI. Aggregated on AIWithGhost for educational purposes β full credit and traffic to the original publisher.