Crewaid vs OpenClaw and Hermes Agent
The same freedom, without assembling it yourself.
Try Starter for 7 days for $1. Then $20/month.
| Crewaid | OpenClaw | Hermes Agent | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | A crew of AI teammates you chat with, each with a job | An open-source gateway between your chat apps and an AI agent | An open-source agent that learns and remembers as it runs |
| Where the work happens | One sandboxed computer for your crew; each bot has its own screen and browser, and they share files and logins | The machine or server you install it on | Your machine, or a sandbox: local, Docker, SSH, Singularity or Modal |
| More than one agent | Yes: start with a ready crew of eight, or hire your own; each has its own role, memory and screen | Multi-agent routing | One agent that delegates to isolated subagents |
| Watch it, take over | Live view of every bot’s screen; take the mouse and keyboard any time | Not described; a browser dashboard for chat, config and sessions | Not described |
| Teach by showing | Yes: record a task on its screen, review the skill it learns | Not described; skills and plugins | It writes its own skills from experience |
| Work on a schedule | Routines, and follow-ups a bot schedules for itself | Cron jobs, hooks and webhooks | Natural-language scheduling, run through its gateway |
| Agents working together | Bots message each other and share a task board | Multi-agent routing | Subagents inside a task |
| Models and keys | Models included on every plan, or your own key for OpenRouter, OpenAI, Anthropic or any OpenAI-compatible provider | Any provider, with your own API key | Any model: Nous Portal, OpenRouter, OpenAI or your own endpoint |
| Run it yourself | Yes, free | Only; there is no hosted tier | Yes, or deploy to a cloud |
| Where your data lives | In the region you choose when you sign up (the EU, the US or Asia-Pacific), or on your own servers; messages, keys and credentials encrypted before they are stored | On your machine | On your machine, no telemetry |
| Where you use it | Desktop app for macOS, Windows and Ubuntu; iOS and Android coming soon | WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, Discord, iMessage and more; install with Node | Desktop app, terminal, and Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Signal, email |
| Price | Starter $20/month (first 7 days for $1), Pro $100/month; self-hosting free | Free; you pay for models and hosting | Free; you pay for models and hosting |
Which to choose.
OpenClaw and Hermes Agent are free, open-source agents you run yourself and talk to from chat apps like WhatsApp and Telegram. They are flexible and yours to change. Crewaid is a finished product built around the same freedom (any model, your own key, self-hosting) with a desktop app, a computer of its own for your crew, a live screen for every bot, approvals, and teaching by demonstration, without assembling it yourself.
Choose OpenClaw and Hermes Agent if
- You want free, open-source software you can read and change.
- You want to talk to your agent from WhatsApp, Telegram or Signal.
- You are happy to install, configure and run it yourself.
Choose Crewaid if
- You want a desktop app that works without setup.
- You want to see each bot’s screen live, and take over.
- You want a hosted service, with self-hosting there if you need it.
Sources.
Everything about OpenClaw and Hermes Agent on this page comes from these pages, checked 29 September 2026. “Not described” means their materials do not say. Products change quickly; if something here is out of date, tell us and we will fix it.
Product names are trademarks of their owners, named here only to compare.
Start with a ready crew.
Eight bots with jobs on day one, or hire your own in a minute. Watch every screen, bring your own key, or run it all on your own servers.
Try Starter for 7 days for $1. Then $20/month.
