# Hermes Agent vs OpenInstinct (slim)

> Hermes Agent scores 67.9 (B) to OpenInstinct's 21.8 (F) for assistants reached by message. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-openinstinct.md (~3,600 tokens) · this version ~580 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-openinstinct.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-openinstinct
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · Updated: 2026-10-13

Hermes Agent scores 67.9 (B) on agent readiness against OpenInstinct's 21.8 (F), and leads in every scored category. Both do assistants reached by message.

- Hermes Agent: B 67.9, rank #244 of 1010 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/hermes-agent.min.md
- OpenInstinct: F 21.8, rank #988 of 1010 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/openinstinct.min.md
- Hermes Agent, 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 33; Schema & documentation, 80 against 0; Agent ergonomics, 80 against 0; Security & auth, 75 against 0; Payments & pricing, 60 against 50; Maintenance & community, 84 against 66. Also No key needed to call it; Free to start without a card.
- OpenInstinct, good for Developers comfortable running their own iMessage assistant on Vercel with a browser agent and Link wallet.

| Category | Hermes Agent | OpenInstinct |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 57 | 33 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 80 | 0 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 80 | 0 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 75 | 0 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 60 | 50 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 84 | 66 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 63 | 59 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Hermes Agent | OpenInstinct |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Agent harness | Platform |
| Vendor | Nous Research | Merit Systems, Inc. |
| Auth | None | OAuth or key |
| Licence | MIT | MIT (Copyright 2026 Merit Systems, Inc.). |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-10-11 | 2026-10-05 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked |  |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked |  |
| Popularity | 253k stars | none |