Hermes Agent alternative: an always-on AI agent without the setup
Hermes Agent from Nous Research is one of the most popular open-source personal agents. If you want what it does (an agent that remembers you, works from your chat apps and runs tasks around the clock) without installing and running it yourself, todo.is is the hosted way to get there.
What is Hermes Agent?
- Hermes Agent is an open-source (MIT) AI agent by Nous Research, built around a learning loop: it writes skills from experience, keeps a memory it curates itself, and can search its past conversations.
- You install it with a one-line script on Linux, macOS, WSL2 or Windows and run it on your own machine, a VPS or a cloud backend. It connects to Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Signal, email and the command line, and works with many model providers (OpenRouter, OpenAI, your own endpoint and others). The project has passed 250,000 GitHub stars.
Hermes Agent vs todo.is (as of October 2026)
- Setup: Hermes Agent: Install script, then configure models and channels yourself. todo.is: Nothing to install: sign up and your agent is online in minutes.
- Where it runs: Hermes Agent: Your computer, a VPS or a cloud backend you manage. todo.is: Hosted and run 24/7 by todo.is.
- Price: Hermes Agent: Free software; you pay for hosting and model usage. todo.is: $1 for the first 24 hours, then Starter $29, Pro $69 or Elite $119 a month, with AI credits included.
- Chat apps: Hermes Agent: Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Signal, email, CLI. todo.is: Web, Android app (iPhone coming), WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, Discord and email.
- AI models: Hermes Agent: Many providers, bring your own keys. todo.is: 450+ AI models on included credits, or your own API key.
- Browsing: Hermes Agent: Browser automation on the machine it runs on. todo.is: A cloud browser, or your own Chrome through the todo.is Connector.
- Safety: Hermes Agent: Depends on how you configure and isolate it. todo.is: Asks before sensitive actions (payments, sending, deleting); you approve with one tap.
- Updates & uptime: Hermes Agent: You keep it updated and running. todo.is: Handled for you.
Choose Hermes Agent if
- You want full control of the code, the data and the server it runs on.
- You enjoy tinkering: custom backends, your own models, your own skills.
- You are comfortable keeping a self-hosted service secure and up to date.
Choose todo.is if
- You want the agent, not the infrastructure: no server, no install, no updates.
- You want it on WhatsApp, Telegram and the web in minutes, with a phone app.
- You want built-in approvals before payments, messages and deletions.
- You want AI credits included instead of managing API keys (your own key still works).
FAQ
- Is Hermes Agent free? The software is free and open source (MIT). Running it still costs money: a machine or VPS to host it, and the AI model usage it consumes.
- Can todo.is do what Hermes Agent does? For everyday use, yes: an agent that remembers you, works from your chat apps, browses the web, runs scheduled tasks and handles files. todo.is is hosted, so there is nothing to install. If you need to modify the agent's code itself, a self-hosted project like Hermes Agent is the better fit.
- Can I keep using my own API key? Yes. todo.is includes AI credits with every plan, and you can switch any agent to your own key from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, OpenRouter and others.
JavaScript is required to use the todo.is app.