Hermes Agent vs Manus
Hermes Agent (Nous Research) and Manus (Butterfly Effect Pte. Ltd. (Manus AI), Singapore) side by side on public data, as of Oct 6, 2026.
Hermes Agent shipped 17 stable releases in the past 90 days.
Side-by-side numbers
| Metric | Hermes Agent | Manus |
|---|---|---|
| Pulse Score | 54 | 51 |
| Overall rank | #27 | #37 |
| Downloads, last 7 days | 50.2K | — |
| Downloads, 7-day change | up 37.3% | — |
| Downloads, 30-day change | down 39.8% | — |
| VS Code installs | — | — |
| Marketplace rating | — | 4.7 / 5 (38,671) |
| GitHub stars | 251K | — |
| Homebrew installs, 30 days | 1,542 | 42 |
| Hacker News mentions, 30 days | 25 | 8 |
| Latest stable release | 2026.9.24 · 12d ago | — |
| Stable releases, 90 days | 17 | |
| Terminal-Bench (best run) | — | — |
| Price | Free (OSS) | Free + $20/mo |
| License | MIT | Proprietary |
| First released | February 2026 | March 2025 |
| Interfaces | CLI, Messaging apps, Desktop | Web, Desktop, Mobile, Browser extension, API |
| Models | Any model: Nous Portal, OpenRouter, OpenAI and custom endpoints | Manus 2.0 model tiers (Max, standard, Lite); underlying third-party LLMs are not publicly specified |
Trends
Hermes Agent
Open-source self-improving agent from Nous Research that keeps persistent memory, creates and refines skills from experience, runs scheduled automations, and works from a terminal interface or messaging apps such as Telegram, Discord, Slack and WhatsApp. It can run locally or on Docker, SSH, Modal and Daytona backends, and has a desktop app.
Pricing: Free and open source (MIT); users pay their chosen model providers (Nous Portal, OpenRouter, OpenAI or custom endpoints).
Latest release 2026.9.24:
- hermes update (git installs), or re-run the installer one-liner.
- Docker / Hermes Cloud: images build from this tag (nousresearch/hermes-agent:v2026.9.24).
Manus
General-purpose autonomous agent that plans and runs multi-step tasks in a cloud sandbox, such as research, slides, websites and data analysis, with web, desktop, mobile and browser-extension clients. Manus 2.0, announced in September 2026, added a new agent harness, dedicated cloud computers and a desktop studio.
Pricing: Free plan: 300 daily credits (Chat Mode and Manus 2.0 Lite in Agent Mode). Pro from $20/month (4,000 credits) and from $40/month (8,000 credits, 7-day trial), 17% off with annual billing; Team from $20 per seat/month.