Runtime comparison · 2 September 2026

Four ways to get an agent that actually does work

Pick the runtime first. Billing second. Hermes Agent is the open MIT agent with persistent memory, skills it writes for itself, and a messaging gateway. Portal is one convenient way to feed it models and tools — not the product.

No star-count theater No invented list prices Unofficial

Decision table

Read down a column if you already have a favorite. Read across a row if you have a constraint.

Constraint	Hermes Agent	OpenClaw	Claude Cowork	Just Cursor / Claude Code
What it is	Open-source agent runtime (MIT). CLI, desktop, and a long-running messaging gateway.	Self-hosted gateway that sits in the chat apps you already use and talks to coding agents with your keys.	Managed “describe an outcome, step away” mode on paid Claude plans. Cloud sessions, Anthropic-operated.	Editor-native coding agents. You stay in the repo. No persistent life outside the IDE unless you add one.
License / lock-in	Software is free MIT. You can point it at Portal, OpenRouter, lab keys, or local models.	Self-host + own keys. Broader channel mesh (WhatsApp, Telegram, Discord, Signal, iMessage, Slack, and more).	Managed. Claude models only. Usage comes out of a paid Claude seat (Pro / Max / Team / Enterprise).	Vendor IDE or CLI. Cursor is its own stack; Claude Code rides a Claude seat. Switching later is a workflow change, not a config flag.
Memory	Persistent memory across sessions. It keeps projects, preferences, and how it solved a thing last time.	Sessions, memory, and multi-agent routing exist; you operate the gateway and the store.	Projects with files, instructions, and memory inside Claude’s account. Follows you across Claude surfaces.	Repo / chat / project context. Not a personal agent that lives in Telegram overnight.
Skills	Self-written skills: it saves procedures from experience and reuses them. Compatible with agentskills.io.	Skills and plugins; you extend the gateway rather than waiting on a vendor catalog.	Connectors and scheduled tasks on Anthropic’s rails. You don’t get a local skill file you can diff.	Rules, prompts, and MCP in the editor. Skills don’t walk with you to WhatsApp.
Messaging / “lives where you do”	Messaging gateway: Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Signal, email, and more — one agent, one memory.	This is the point of OpenClaw: one Gateway process, many channels, your hardware.	Claude web, desktop, mobile. Browser / computer-use where the desktop app is connected.	The editor, plus whatever chat the vendor bolted on. Not a general messaging gateway.
Models	Provider-agnostic. Swap models mid-session. Portal is optional.	Hosted or local providers; you bring keys (or OAuth where the provider allows it).	Claude family only.	Cursor: multi-model, vendor-mediated. Claude Code: Claude.
Who runs the machine	You, on your laptop/server. Optional Portal for inference + Tool Gateway.	You. Self-host is the default posture.	Anthropic. Sessions run in their cloud (Cowork is explicit about this).	Mix: local editor, vendor inference.
Best default if…	You want an agent that grows a memory and a skill folder, and you might message it from Slack tonight.	You want the widest self-hosted channel set and you are willing to operate a gateway.	You want a managed coworker on a Claude seat and you do not want to host anything.	The work is “edit this codebase,” and leaving the IDE would be a downgrade.

GitHub star counts are omitted on purpose. We fetched Hermes live while writing this and still don’t think a star number helps you choose a runtime. OpenClaw docs: docs.openclaw.ai. Cowork: Anthropic’s Cowork article (paid plans only; Team is seat-based with a two-member minimum).

When Portal Plus is worth it vs own keys

Hermes does not require Portal. hermes setup --portal is the fast path, not the only path. Own keys (a lab, or OpenRouter) still work. Portal is the convenient paid gateway: 300+ models on one bill, plus the Tool Gateway.

Pay for Plus when

You want one OAuth instead of Firecrawl + FAL + browser vendor + TTS + a model lab.
You’re on Windows and the per-tool API-key gauntlet is the actual blocker.
Your monthly agent spend is in the “about $20 of mixed inference + hosted tools” band, and a $10 Plus rollover cap won’t strand a pile of unused credit.
You value the 10% credit bonus ($20 → $22) and you will actually burn the credits.

Bring your own keys when

You already have OpenRouter or lab credits and a working Firecrawl/browser setup.
You need provider-level routing knobs that Portal does not contract to honor (the Hermes Portal docs say OpenRouter-style provider / session_id / top-level cache_control may be ignored).
You spend far over $20 and you’d rather not be shaped by a monthly bundle and a Plus rollover cap.
You want a local model for the hot path and you’ll only burst to a frontier lab.

The Tool Gateway is the honest reason to subscribe — not the extra $2 of credits. Search/extract (Firecrawl), images (FAL), TTS, and cloud browser, billed against the same subscription. We unpack that on Plus vs OpenRouter. Setup is on the hermes setup --portal note.

A blunt recommendation

If the job is coding in a repo all day: stay in Cursor or Claude Code. Don’t import a gateway for vibes.
If you want a managed coworker and you already pay Anthropic: Cowork on that seat. Per-seat, Claude-only, no Hermes required.
If you want self-host, own keys, and the widest channel list: OpenClaw. Operate it like infrastructure.
If you want an MIT agent with memory + self-written skills + a messaging gateway, and you’d like one OAuth for models and tools: Hermes, then Portal Plus.

Those are overlapping tools, not a moral ranking. Plenty of people run Hermes with OpenRouter and never touch Portal. That is a supported configuration.

Portal Plus, if the table pointed you there

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