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Head to head · Assistants reached by message · October 2026 research run

Hermes Agent vs szn

Hermes Agent scores 67.9 (B) on agent readiness against szn's 7.3 (F), and leads in every scored category. Both do assistants reached by message.

Best AI personal assistants that act for one person · All 834 assistants comparisons

Hermes AgentNous Research · Agent harness B67.9/100#244 of 1010 sznNomadic Futures · Platform F7.3/100#1010 of 1010

Which one, for what

Hermes Agent B

Best 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 5
  • Schema & documentation, 80 against 10
  • Agent ergonomics, 80 against 0
  • Security & auth, 75 against 0
  • Payments & pricing, 60 against 20
  • Maintenance & community, 84 against 2
  • Transparency & trust, 63 against 23

Also in its favour

  • No key needed to call it
  • Free to start without a card
  • 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

szn F

Best for A person who wants calls, emails and bookings done for them and has an access code.

Also in its favour

  • No incidents deducted, where Hermes Agent loses 3 points for them

Watch for

Early access by access code only.

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runHermes AgentsznEdge
Reliability16%20575Hermes Agent +52
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.28010Hermes Agent +70
Agent ergonomics13%16.2800Hermes Agent +80
Security & auth14%17.5750Hermes Agent +75
Payments & pricing10%12.56020Hermes Agent +40
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.8842Hermes Agent +82
Transparency & trust7%8.86323Hermes Agent +40
Negative events≤15-30
TotalB 67.9/100F 7.3/100

Facts side by side

FactHermes Agentszn
KindAgent harnessPlatform
VendorNous ResearchNomadic Futures
Hosted endpointno (local only)no (local only)
Transports
AuthNoneOAuth or key
PricingFreeFree
x402nono
LicenceMITClosed service. No terms of service were found on theszn.ai. A privacy policy and an acceptable use policy (both last updated March 2026) apply.
Read-only variant documentednoyes
llms.txtyesyes
Last release2026-10-11none
Terms last updatedno document linkedno document linked
Privacy policy last updatedno 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
Popularity253k starsnone

Verdicts

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.

szn

szn is an errand assistant in early access that makes calls, sends emails and books for its owner, free during the preview for people with an access code. No outside agent can call it, no terms of service or legal entity appear in its policies, and its privacy policy says nothing on training.

Before you call either

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

szn

  1. Don't plan to call szn from another agent. It answers only its web app, iMessage, SMS and email for the owner.
  2. Tell the owner they need an access code to start, and that the acceptable use policy makes them responsible for confirming actions.

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Hermes Agent or szn?

Hermes Agent scores 67.9 (B) on agent readiness against szn's 7.3 (F), and leads in every scored category.

Are Hermes Agent and szn open source?

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

Other comparisons with Hermes Agent or szn

Disclosure

szn 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.

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