AI agents compared: runtimes, harnesses and personal agents
14 agents side by side: price, licence, hosting, models, MCP support, chat channels, GitHub stars and last release. Every cell links to the page it was read from. Where a page doesn't say, the cell says so instead of guessing.
Disclosure. the owner of this site personally uses some of the tools listed here, including OpenClaw and treg.to. Those entries are marked ★ and are checked by the same rules as every other row. No vendor has paid for placement or ranking.
| Agent | Price | Open source? | Licence | Hosting | Models | MCP | Channels | GitHub stars | Latest release |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenClaw ★ owner uses Personal agent that lives in your chat apps. | Free (MIT licence); you pay your model provider [src] | Yes [src] | MIT [src] | Self-hosted: state, memory and credentials live on your own hardware; native apps for macOS, iOS, Android, Windows, Linux [src] | Claude, Codex, local models and other harnesses as swappable plugins [src] | Not stated in README [src] | Discord, iMessage, Slack, Teams, Telegram, WhatsApp and 20+ more [src] | 392,459 [src] | v2026.10.5 · 2026-10-18 [src] |
| Hermes Agent (Nous Research) Verified: published by Nous Research (github.com/NousResearch). | Free (MIT licence); you pay your model provider [src] | Yes [src] | MIT [src] | Local or a cloud VM: 'talk to it from Telegram while it works on a cloud VM' [src] | Nous Portal, OpenRouter, OpenAI, your own endpoint and others [src] | Yes: 'Connect any MCP server' [src] | Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp named in README [src] | 255,208 [src] | v0.22.2 · 2026-10-15 [src] |
| Instinct (instinct.com) Most likely meaning of 'instinct'. Invite-only; cannot be self-hosted. | Free for invite-only users 'for now'; no subscription yet (The Verge) [src] | No: proprietary service [src] | Proprietary (service terms) [src] | Cloud only; the agent has its own virtual machine. US phone numbers only at sign-up [src] | Not stated on source [src] | Not stated on source (connects to Google Workspace, Slack, Notion per The Verge) [src] | Text or call; iMessage, WhatsApp, email per The Verge (Instinct's own pages do not name iMessage) [src] | n/a (closed source) [src] | n/a (hosted service) [src] |
| Open Instinct (community clone) Unofficial, not affiliated with Instinct. Alternative reading of 'instinct'. | Free (MIT); needs paid third-party services (Inkbox, Maritime, model provider) [src] | Yes [src] | MIT [src] | Agent runs in its own microVM on Maritime (cloud) with a Linux desktop [src] | Default Claude (as named in README); 'any Pi provider works' [src] | Not stated as MCP; apps connect via Composio [src] | Text a phone number (iMessage-style), email, voice calls via Inkbox [src] | 369 [src] | no GitHub release [src] |
| Claude Code Anthropic's coding agent. | Included in Claude Pro ($17/mo billed annually, $20 monthly) and Max (from $100/mo); not on Free [src] | No: repository carries no open-source licence [src] | No licence file [src] | Local (terminal, IDE, desktop app) and cloud/web [src] | Claude models via Claude subscription or Anthropic Console; third-party providers supported in CLI, VS Code, JetBrains [src] | Yes: 'hundreds of external tools' via MCP [src] | Terminal, VS Code, JetBrains, desktop app, web, mobile [src] | 152,481 [src] | v2.1.303 · 2026-10-18 [src] |
| Codex CLI (OpenAI) | Open-source CLI; use with a ChatGPT plan (see Codex pricing page) or API key [src] | Yes [src] | Apache-2.0 [src] | Local CLI; also desktop app (`codex app`) and cloud 'Codex Web' [src] | OpenAI models (README is OpenAI-centric) [src] | Yes: STDIO and streamable-HTTP servers [src] | Terminal, desktop app, web [src] | 129,917 [src] | rust-v0.163.0 · 2026-10-15 [src] |
| OpenCode Repo moved to anomalyco/opencode (was sst/opencode). | Free and open source; 'free models included' or bring any model; optional paid Zen/Go plans [src] | Yes [src] | MIT [src] | Local: terminal, desktop app or IDE extension [src] | 75+ providers via Models.dev incl. local; log in with ChatGPT Plus/Pro or GitHub Copilot [src] | Yes: local and remote MCP servers [src] | Terminal, desktop, IDE [src] | 217,483 [src] | v1.19.3 · 2026-10-16 [src] |
| Cline Latest release tag is a desktop build. | Free and open source (Apache-2.0); you pay your model provider. Paid options: see cline.bot [src] | Yes [src] | Apache-2.0 [src] | Local: IDE, CLI, desktop app, SDK; cloud option on site [src] | Many hosted providers, Ollama / LM Studio local, any OpenAI-compatible API [src] | Yes: MCP servers and plugins [src] | `cline connect` for Telegram and Slack (also Discord per README heading) [src] | 70,554 [src] | desktop-v0.0.48 · 2026-10-17 [src] |
| Goose Moved to the Agentic AI Foundation; repo is now aaif-goose/goose. | Free and open source (Apache-2.0); you pay your model provider [src] | Yes [src] | Apache-2.0 [src] | Local: desktop app, CLI and API [src] | 15+ providers incl. Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Ollama, OpenRouter, Bedrock [src] | Yes: 70+ MCP extensions [src] | Desktop app, CLI, API [src] | 55,438 [src] | v1.55.0 · 2026-10-16 [src] |
| n8n (AI agents) Workflow automation with AI agent nodes. | Self-host free under the licence; cloud plans on pricing page [src] | Source-available ('fair-code'), not OSI open source [src] | Sustainable Use License [src] | Self-hosted or n8n Cloud [src] | OpenAI and Anthropic named in README; other models via nodes (not checked) [src] | Not stated in README [src] | 1500+ integrations on a visual canvas [src] | 208,011 [src] | n8n@2.43.8 · 2026-10-19 [src] |
| OpenHands | Free and open source (MIT); cloud and enterprise editions also offered [src] | Yes [src] | MIT [src] | Local, remote and cloud backends [src] | 'Bring your own model': any LLM [src] | Not stated in README [src] | Terminal/web UI; Slack listed as integration on docs site [src] | 91,285 [src] | v1.28.0 · 2026-10-19 [src] |
| Aider No release since Aug 2025: slow-moving. | Free and open source (Apache-2.0); you pay your model provider [src] | Yes [src] | Apache-2.0 [src] | Local terminal; works inside IDEs [src] | Claude, DeepSeek, OpenAI and 'almost any LLM, including local models' [src] | Not stated on source [src] | Terminal, IDE comments [src] | 49,640 [src] | v0.86.0 · 2025-08-09 [src] |
| Gemini CLI | Free and open source (Apache-2.0); see authentication docs for free quota vs paid keys [src] | Yes [src] | Apache-2.0 [src] | Local terminal; sandbox option [src] | Gemini models [src] | Yes: MCP server integration [src] | Terminal, IDE integration [src] | 107,457 [src] | v0.64.0 · 2026-10-13 [src] |
| Manus | Credit plans: 4,000 / 8,000 / 40,000 credits per month plus 300 refresh credits daily. Dollar amounts could not be read (animated digits): unverified [src] | No: proprietary cloud service [src] | Proprietary [src] | Cloud only [src] | Not stated on source [src] | Not stated on source [src] | Web app; Slack integration listed on site [src] | n/a (closed source) [src] | n/a (hosted service) [src] |
About "Instinct". The name is ambiguous. The best match is Instinct (instinct.com), a proprietary, invite-only personal agent you text or call. Open Instinct is an unofficial open-source clone and is listed separately. If you meant something else, tell us.
GitHub stars, licence and release dates come from the GitHub API on 2026-10-19; other facts were read from the linked pages that day. Stars are a popularity signal, not a quality ranking. Refresh with python3 scraper/agents_refresh.py.