# folk vs Hermes Agent

> Hermes Agent scores 67.9 (B) to folk's 19.8 (F) for proactive personal assistants. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-hermes-agent
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-hermes-agent.md (~3,500 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-hermes-agent.min.md (~580 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-hermes-agent.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-13

Hermes Agent scores 67.9 (B) on agent readiness against folk's 19.8 (F), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do proactive personal assistants.

- folk: grade F, 19.8/100, rank #993 of 1010. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/folk-nozomio.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/folk-nozomio.json
- Hermes Agent: grade B, 67.9/100, rank #244 of 1010. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/hermes-agent.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/hermes-agent.json
- Best AI personal assistants that act for one person: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/personal-assistants/index.md
- All 834 assistants comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/personal-assistants/index.md

## Which one, for what

### folk (F)

Good for: People who want a texting companion for habits, workouts, study and money goals, with a free tier.

Also in its favour:
- No incidents deducted, where Hermes Agent loses 3 points for them

Watch for: No API, MCP server or A2A endpoint for an outside agent.

### Hermes Agent (B)

Good for: A technical owner who wants one always-on agent across chat apps with memory and scheduled jobs, on their own machine or a small server, with any model.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 57 against 25
- Schema & documentation, 80 against 10
- Agent ergonomics, 80 against 0
- Security & auth, 75 against 3
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 30
- Maintenance & community, 84 against 35

Also in its favour:
- No key needed to call it
- Open source

Watch for: The default terminal backend runs commands on the host, and the default `smart` mode lets an auxiliary model approve commands it rates low-risk


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | folk | Hermes Agent | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 25 | 57 | Hermes Agent +32 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 10 | 80 | Hermes Agent +70 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 0 | 80 | Hermes Agent +80 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 3 | 75 | Hermes Agent +72 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 30 | 60 | Hermes Agent +30 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 35 | 84 | Hermes Agent +49 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 67 | 63 | folk +4 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -3 | |
| **Total** | | **19.8 · F** | **67.9 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | folk | Hermes Agent |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Platform | Agent harness |
| Vendor | Nozomio, Inc. | Nous Research |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports |  |  |
| Auth | OAuth or key | None |
| Pricing | Freemium | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Closed service under folk's terms (Nozomio, Inc., last updated 8 September 2026). | MIT |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-12 | 2026-10-11 |
| Terms last updated |  | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated |  | no document linked |
| Customer content may train models |  |  |
| Terms restrict automated access |  |  |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  |  |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  |  |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  |  |
| Popularity | none | 253k stars |

## Verdicts

**folk.** folk is a texting accountability assistant with its own cloud computer, a free tier with no card and a privacy policy that rules out training on user data. No outside agent can call it, no status page or changelog was found, and its llms.txt and pricing file disagree on free limits and Max's price.

**Hermes Agent.** Card payments always ask first and are refused in unattended sessions, and the messaging gateway denies every sender until an allowlist is set. Shell commands run on the host by default with a model judging risk, and sending mail through the Google Workspace skill is held back only by an instruction to the model.

## Before you call either

### folk

1. Don't plan to call folk from another agent. It answers only the owner's iMessage, Telegram or WhatsApp thread and iPhone app.
2. Quote limits and prices from pricing.md and the terms, and note that llms.txt gives different free-tier limits.

### Hermes Agent

1. Set `approvals.mode: manual` before giving it real accounts. The default `smart` lets an auxiliary model approve commands
2. Run the gateway with `terminal.backend: docker` or the project's Docker image when it reads mail, web pages or group chats
3. Set `memory.write_approval: true` and `skills.write_approval: true` to review what it saves about the owner
4. Leave `approvals.cron_mode` and `approvals.unattended_mode` at `deny` for scheduled and webhook runs
5. Set `TELEGRAM_ALLOWED_USERS` or the matching allowlist per channel. Never set `GATEWAY_ALLOW_ALL_USERS=true`

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, folk or Hermes Agent?

Hermes Agent scores 67.9 (B) on agent readiness against folk's 19.8 (F), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.

### Are folk and Hermes Agent open source?

No open-source release is listed for folk. Hermes Agent is open source (MIT).


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-hermes-agent.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-hermes-agent.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "folk-nozomio", "b": "hermes-agent"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare folk-nozomio hermes-agent`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/folk-nozomio.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/hermes-agent.json

## Other comparisons with folk or Hermes Agent

- [asaply vs folk](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/asaply-vs-folk-nozomio.md)
- [asaply vs Hermes Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/asaply-vs-hermes-agent.md)
- [Asmi vs folk](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/asmi-vs-folk-nozomio.md)
- [Asmi vs Hermes Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/asmi-vs-hermes-agent.md)
- [Boba vs folk](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boba-vs-folk-nozomio.md)
- [Boba vs Hermes Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boba-vs-hermes-agent.md)
- [Brea vs folk](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brea-vs-folk-nozomio.md)
- [Brea vs Hermes Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brea-vs-hermes-agent.md)
- [Del vs folk](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/del-vs-folk-nozomio.md)
- [Del vs Hermes Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/del-vs-hermes-agent.md)
- [folk vs HireAlpha](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-hirealpha.md)
- [folk vs OpenInstinct](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-openinstinct.md)
- [folk vs Orbits](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-orbits.md)
- [folk vs Orchid](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-orchid-ai.md)
- [folk vs szn](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-szn.md)
- [folk vs Tab](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-tab-bot.md)
- [folk vs Zapia](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-zapia.md)
- [Hermes Agent vs HireAlpha](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-hirealpha.md)
- [Hermes Agent vs OpenInstinct](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-openinstinct.md)
- [Hermes Agent vs Orbits](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-orbits.md)
- [Hermes Agent vs Orchid](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-orchid-ai.md)
- [Hermes Agent vs szn](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-szn.md)
- [Hermes Agent vs Tab](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-tab-bot.md)
- [Hermes Agent vs Zapia](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-zapia.md)
- [AstrBot vs folk](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/astrbot-vs-folk-nozomio.md)
- [AstrBot vs Hermes Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/astrbot-vs-hermes-agent.md)
- [Boski vs folk](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boski-vs-folk-nozomio.md)
- [Boski vs Hermes Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boski-vs-hermes-agent.md)
- [Caddy vs folk](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/caddy-app-vs-folk-nozomio.md)
- [Caddy vs Hermes Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/caddy-app-vs-hermes-agent.md)
- [CowAgent vs folk](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cowagent-vs-folk-nozomio.md)
- [CowAgent vs Hermes Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cowagent-vs-hermes-agent.md)
- [folk vs GAIA](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-gaia.md)
- [folk vs Gemini Spark](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-gemini-spark.md)
- [folk vs Grok Bot](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-grok-bot.md)
- [folk vs Haven](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-haven.md)
- [folk vs Instinct](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-instinct.md)
- [folk vs IronClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-ironclaw.md)
- [folk vs Leon](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-leon.md)
- [folk vs Lindy](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-lindy.md)
- [folk vs nanobot](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-nanobot.md)
- [folk vs NanoClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-nanoclaw.md)
- [folk vs Dots](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-openai-dots.md)
- [folk vs OpenClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-openclaw.md)
- [folk vs PicoClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-picoclaw.md)
- [folk vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-poke.md)
- [folk vs QwenPaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-qwenpaw.md)
- [folk vs Town](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-town.md)
- [folk vs ZeroClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-zeroclaw.md)
- [folk vs Zo Computer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-zo-computer.md)
- [GAIA vs Hermes Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gaia-vs-hermes-agent.md)
- [Gemini Spark vs Hermes Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gemini-spark-vs-hermes-agent.md)
- [Grok Bot vs Hermes Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grok-bot-vs-hermes-agent.md)
- [Haven vs Hermes Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/haven-vs-hermes-agent.md)
- [Hermes Agent vs Instinct](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-instinct.md)
- [Hermes Agent vs IronClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-ironclaw.md)
- [Hermes Agent vs Leon](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-leon.md)
- [Hermes Agent vs Lindy](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-lindy.md)
- [Hermes Agent vs nanobot](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-nanobot.md)
- [Hermes Agent vs NanoClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-nanoclaw.md)
- [Hermes Agent vs Dots](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-openai-dots.md)
- [Hermes Agent vs OpenClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-openclaw.md)
- [Hermes Agent vs PicoClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-picoclaw.md)
- [Hermes Agent vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-poke.md)
- [Hermes Agent vs QwenPaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-qwenpaw.md)
- [Hermes Agent vs Town](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-town.md)
- [Hermes Agent vs ZeroClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-zeroclaw.md)
- [Hermes Agent vs Zo Computer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-zo-computer.md)
- [folk vs Natura tinyNature](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-natura.md)
- [folk vs Pally](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-pally.md)
- [folk vs Tomo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-tomo.md)
- [folk vs Wajo (Fo)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-wajo.md)
- [Hermes Agent vs Natura tinyNature](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-natura.md)
- [Hermes Agent vs Pally](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-pally.md)
- [Hermes Agent vs Tomo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-tomo.md)
- [Hermes Agent vs Wajo (Fo)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-wajo.md)
- [folk vs Talorys](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-nozomio-vs-talorys.md)
- [Hermes Agent vs Talorys](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-talorys.md)

## Disclosure

- folk competes with LocalGhost, which Anchor Terminal's founder builds. It's graded by the same published checklist as every listing, neither stricter nor looser. Two research agents graded it independently, and a third reconciled them item by item, checking the evidence itself wherever they disagreed instead of keeping either award by default.