Comparison
Syniaps or Hermes Agent?
An open source agent with 245,000 stars, self-hosted, that learns on its own but is configured by hand
What Hermes Agent sells: "The agent that grows with you": a free agent installed in 60 seconds on any machine, which remembers, improves with use and runs scheduled tasks while you sleep, with Nous Portal ($20 to $200 a month) as an optional subscription for models and tools.
Syniaps
4.0 / 5
Hermes Agent
3.4 / 5
Surveyed on 15 September 2026 from the publisher's public pages, cited at the foot of this page. Offers change: check with the publisher before you decide.
Hermes Agent at a glance
- Who
- Nous Research, United States, 2023
- A lab founded in 2023 (Quesnelle, Malhotra, Teknium, Mitra) that raised $70m (Paradigm, Robot Ventures), with a further round of at least $75m at a $1.5bn valuation under discussion (TechCrunch, July 2026). Hermes Agent shipped on 25 February 2026 and shows 245,800 stars and 51,000 forks on GitHub as of 15 September 2026; no SOC 2 or ISO certification has been announced.
- What
- A self-hosted Python agent, memory, skills
- A Python agent (CLI, TUI, macOS/Windows desktop app) with 60+ tools (a terminal across 7 backends including Docker, SSH and Modal; files; a browser; web search; vision; images; voice), a messaging gateway (Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Signal, Teams, email, SMS, 30+ channels), a built-in cron, sub-agents and MCP. Its distinctive feature is the learning loop: a bounded memory curated by the agent, autonomous creation of skills (agentskills.io format) that improve with use, and full-text search across past sessions.
- How it gets set up
- A script, an API key, bot tokens
- A one-command install, then "hermes model" to pick a provider (Nous Portal OAuth, or an API key from OpenAI, Anthropic or OpenRouter, or a local model with at least 64,000 tokens of context). To run with your computer off you need a VPS or Docker, then "hermes gateway setup", creating and pasting the token for each bot, setting user allowlists (everyone is denied by default), and for Gmail going through the Google Cloud console. Every cron task is a prompt written by the user, and it has to stand alone because the task runs in a blank session.
- Which models
- 300+ models, inference at the providers
- Any OpenAI-compatible model: Claude, GPT, Gemini, DeepSeek, Qwen, Llama, or local ones through Ollama/vLLM; switch at any time with "hermes model". Through Nous Portal, inference is routed by Nous to OpenRouter and other providers (outside the EU); with your own keys or a local model, it goes wherever you decide.
- Price
- Free under MIT, Portal $20 to $200
- The software is free (MIT); you pay for the AI (an API key or Nous Portal: Free, Plus at $20 for $22 of credits, Super at $100, Ultra at $200) and for the machine (a VPS from $5 to $9 a month, or Hermes Cloud from $0.32 a day in preview). Hermes Business (shared credits, per-member ceilings, shared skills) and Hermes Enterprise (on-premise, contract) were announced on 14 September 2026 with no public price.
- Who it is for
- Developers, homelabs, technical freelancers
- Its real base: developers, researchers and tinkerers who want to own the whole stack and drive their agent from Telegram. It is strong for the technical individual after a learning personal agent; tests from smaller companies conclude it is "too technical" (OAuth, tiny screens, no view of the credits consumed).
Point by point
| Criterion | Hermes Agent | Syniaps | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence | 300+ models (Claude, GPT, Gemini, local ones) switched by command, with no step-up modes | Claude Sonnet/Opus/Fable, GPT through Codex or the model of your choice, with Standard, In-depth and Maximum modes | Level |
| "Execute" | A terminal across 7 backends, files, a browser on the real profile (cookies), background jobs, sub-agents | Files, code, a browser on sites without an API (captured cookies), long-running work, hosted apps, GitHub | Level |
| Knowledge | Two bounded note files (2,200 and 1,375 characters) and search across past sessions, with no document ingestion | Synapses built and maintained from documents, email and cloud storage, with OCR and retrieval | Syniaps |
| Setup | An API key, bot tokens, allowlists, Google OAuth by hand, and cron prompts written by the user | A short wizard, then the agent proposes the automations as cards to confirm | Syniaps |
| Learning | A native loop: skills created on their own, a curated memory with reminders, a background review after each session | Corrections, skills and preferences retained, and what it learns proposed for approval | The alternative |
| Sovereignty | Self-hostable anywhere, zero telemetry, but an American publisher, Portal routed outside the EU, and 9 CVEs in spring 2026 | A dedicated OVH machine in France, a sandbox per user, AI processed in Europe if you choose, no certification | Syniaps |
| Entry and price | Free under MIT, a $5 VPS, Portal from $20 to $200, immediately self-serve | From €99 excl. tax a month, AI included, a free 7-day trial open within minutes, a card required | The alternative |
| Scope | A generalist personal agent across 30+ messaging apps, designed for a technical individual | A whole company: eleven expert teams, missions, a team, a shared area | Syniaps |
What each one does better
Where Syniaps wins
Real company knowledge
Synapses, OCR, the cloud mirror and email give the agent the whole context of the business, where Hermes runs on 2,200 characters of notes and a session search.
Nothing to wire
The wizard and the "the agent proposes, the human confirms" cards replace bot tokens, allowlists, Google OAuth and cron prompts you have to write yourself.
A dedicated machine in France
Each customer has their own OVH machine and a sandbox per user, where Hermes leaves the VPS, the Docker hardening and the response to CVEs to the customer.
Experts and missions
Eleven teams run missions end to end with approval on sensitive moves, where Hermes ships a single agent and sub-agents you orchestrate yourself.
Company teamwork out of the box
Roles, a shared area, a company wiki and delegation have been there from the start; Hermes Business dates from 14 September 2026 and its memory is still a single user profile.
Where Hermes Agent wins
A native learning loop
The agent creates its own skills after a complex task, patches them with use and reminds itself to write to memory: the market reference on this point.
Free and self-serve
MIT, a single install command and a $5 VPS: the cost of entry is close to zero, with no time limit.
Total freedom of model
300+ models including local ones (Ollama, vLLM), switched at any time, and an on-premise option that depends on no cloud at all.
Present on 30+ channels
Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Signal, Teams, email, SMS and iMessage, with session continuity across platforms, plus voice.
Community and ecosystem
245,000 stars, 51,000 forks, 10m+ Docker pulls, 647 skills across 4 registries, 8 external memory providers and a $1.5bn valuation in sight.
Two caveats on its promise
- "Grows with you" rests on a 2,200-character memory (plus 1,375 for the profile), with no automatic compaction, taken into account only from the next session, and skills that can freeze a mistake in place; this is not knowledge of the company.
- Security is a stack of shell guards rather than a sandbox: the terminal runs as the host user, the controls are skipped under Docker, and 9 CVEs (including injection and RCE, CVE-2026-9366, CVE-2026-10223) came out within days in spring 2026, for a tool that copies the real browser's cookies.
The ten criteria, scored and justified
Intelligence
Frontier models (Claude, GPT, Gemini) and ways to step up a gear
Syniaps 5/5
Claude Sonnet 5, Opus 5 and Fable 5, GPT through Codex, or the model of your choice; Standard, In-depth and Maximum modes.
Hermes Agent 4/5
Claude, GPT, Gemini and 300+ models within reach, switched by command, but no built-in step-up mode, and the in-house Hermes 4 models are not recommended for the agent itself.
Execution power
Actually acts: files, code, browser, sites without an API, long-running work
Syniaps 5/5
Files, code, terminal, a browser for sites without an API, long jobs in the background, hosted apps.
Hermes Agent 4/5
A terminal across 7 backends, files, a browser on the real profile with cookies, background jobs and sub-agents; but no downloads from the browser and no built-in app hosting.
Company knowledge
A base built and maintained on its own from documents, email and cloud storage
Syniaps 4/5
Synapses built by the agent, OCR, a full cloud mirror; still young on very large volumes.
Hermes Agent 2/5
A 2,200-character memory plus a 1,375-character profile, full-text search across past sessions and optional external memory providers; no ingestion of documents, email or cloud storage without building a skill.
Zero setup
Nothing to brief, trigger or tick; the tool proposes, the human confirms
Syniaps 4/5
A short wizard, and the agent proposes its automations in conversation; site connections still have to be made once.
Hermes Agent 2/5
A 60-second install, but the API key, bot tokens, allowlists, Google Cloud OAuth and self-contained cron prompts are all left to the user.
Continuous learning
Remembers corrections and preferences without being asked to
Syniaps 4/5
Corrections, skills and preferences are retained and proposed for approval; no learning across customers yet.
Hermes Agent 4/5
A native loop (skills created on their own, a background review, memory reminders), unique on the market, tempered by the bounded memory, the one-session delay and the risk of freezing a mistake in place.
Autonomy
Missions and automations server-side, computer switched off, human approval on sensitive moves
Syniaps 4/5
Missions and scheduled actions run server-side with your computer off, with approval cards; mission ceilings still need tuning.
Hermes Agent 4/5
Cron on a VPS gateway with your computer off, delivery to every channel, jobs that can be paused for review and fail-closed approval of dangerous commands; but every task starts from a blank session and the user writes the prompt.
Integrations and connections
Everyday tools, MCP, cloud storage, email, sites without an API
Syniaps 4/5
Email, cloud storage, meetings, WhatsApp, LinkedIn, MCP, sites without an API; fewer native connectors than a Zapier.
Hermes Agent 4/5
30+ messaging apps, MCP, home automation, a browser with real logins and 8 external memories; Gmail through manual OAuth and no native OneDrive/Drive/Dropbox mirror.
Sovereignty and security
EU hosting, per-customer isolation, EU or on-premise inference, certifications
Syniaps 3/5
A dedicated machine in France (OVH), strong per-user isolation and AI processed in Europe if you choose; no on-premise option and no certification.
Hermes Agent 3/5
Self-hostable on-premise or in the EU, zero telemetry and a hardened Docker image; but an American publisher, a Portal routed outside the EU with training on by default outside Privacy Mode, shell guards rather than a real sandbox, 9 CVEs in 4 days and no certification.
Teamwork
Shared spaces, roles, delegation, company-wide memory
Syniaps 4/5
Company sources connected once, shared synapses, role profiles, shared skills and conversations, shared mailboxes in missions; no SSO and no fine-grained roles.
Hermes Agent 3/5
A multi-user gateway with allowlists and an admin role, and Hermes Business with shared credits and skills announced on 14 September 2026; but a single USER.md memory profile per instance, and two gateways on the same data are forbidden.
Price and access
Total cost (tool + AI + machine) against what you get, and how easily you start
Syniaps 3/5
A dedicated machine, AI included and a 7-day trial that opens within minutes, from €299 excl. tax a month; a card is required for the trial and there is no free tier.
Hermes Agent 4/5
Free under MIT, immediately self-serve, a $5 VPS and Portal from $20; the hidden cost is the technical time to set it up and harden it, which effectively rules out non-developers.
Verdict
The personal agent that learns, against the intelligence that knows the company
Hermes Agent
Hermes is the best open source personal agent to assemble yourself: free, learning, everywhere, but empty of the company and left for you to secure.
Natural fit: developers, homelabs, technical freelancers and engineering teams who want to own their stack.
Syniaps
Syniaps sells what Hermes leaves to be done: knowledge of the business, a secured machine in France, the experts and the team, with nothing to wire.
Natural fit: non-technical companies that want missions run end to end on their own documents.
Do not fight on price or on freedom of model; widen the gap on knowledge, zero setup and security.
Catch up on the learning loop (skills created and improved on their own, a reminder to write) which is becoming the expected standard. Watch Hermes Business and Enterprise: if Nous adds document ingestion and a company memory, "free and open source" becomes a direct threat on technical customers.
Public sources (28)
- https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent
- https://api.github.com/repos/NousResearch/hermes-agent
- https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/
- https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/
- https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/getting-started/quickstart
- https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/user-guide/features/memory
- https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/user-guide/features/skills
- https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/user-guide/features/cron
- https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/user-guide/features/browser
- https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/user-guide/features/tools
- https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/user-guide/security
- https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/user-guide/messaging
- https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/user-guide/docker
- https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/integrations/nous-portal
- https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/reference/faq
- https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/user-stories
- https://portal.nousresearch.com/
- https://portal.nousresearch.com/privacy
- https://hub.docker.com/r/nousresearch/hermes-agent
- https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/13/hermes-agent-maker-nous-research-in-talks-for-new-funding-at-1-5b-valuation/
- https://alphasignal.ai/news/nous-research-packages-hermes-agent-for-teams-and-private-infrastructure
- https://labs.cloudsecurityalliance.org/research/csa-research-note-hermes-agent-cves-20260504-csa-styled/
- https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-pgp4-xr4j-h5cg
- https://www.sentinelone.com/vulnerability-database/cve-2026-10223/
- https://www.mayhemcode.com/2026/09/hermes-agent-review-2026-features.html
- https://utilo.io/en/home/blog/hermes-agent-review-2026
- https://www.aitoolssme.com/review/hermes-agent
- https://www.hostinger.com/tutorials/hermes-agent-cost
Hermes Agent is a trademark of its publisher, cited here for the purpose of objective comparison. Syniaps is neither affiliated with nor a partner of that publisher. Found an error in this comparison? Write to us at [email protected] and we will correct it.