head to head · open source
bento vs HermesOffice
bento has 5,238 GitHub stars, 359 forks, 38 open issues and last shipped yesterday. HermesOffice has 589 stars, 78 forks, 27 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. bento leads on adoption by 789% (5,238 vs 589 stars). bento is written in TypeScript under MIT; HermesOffice is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. bento has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, HermesOffice 13%. bento was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (office-suite, open-source), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| bento | HermesOffice | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 5.2K | ★ 589 |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-26 | 2026-09-25 |
| Forks | ⑂ 359 | ⑂ 78 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick bento if
- You weight community size — 5.2K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick HermesOffice if
- You want the HermesOffice feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and HermesOffice fits your workflow better
About bento
Bento is an MIT licensed, local first PowerPoint alternative that ships as a single self contained HTML file, in which the deck carries its own viewer, presenter and editor so that anyone who opens it in a modern browser can edit or present it without installing anything.
read the full bento overview →
About HermesOffice
HermesOffice is a free, Apache 2.0 licensed, AI native office suite for macOS, Windows, and Linux that opens and saves the real Microsoft Office formats — Word ( .docx ), Excel ( .xlsx ) and PowerPoint ( .pptx ) — alongside PDF and Markdown, and it is aimed at individuals and teams who want AI assisted document editing without sending their files to a cloud service.
read the full HermesOffice overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is bento or HermesOffice more popular?
bento has 5,238 GitHub stars and HermesOffice has 589. bento has the larger community by that measure.
Are bento and HermesOffice free?
Both are open source. bento is licensed under MIT and HermesOffice under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between bento and HermesOffice?
bento is written in TypeScript and HermesOffice in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, bento or HermesOffice?
Choose bento if you want the larger community (5,238 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose HermesOffice if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.