head to head · open source
ego-lite vs hermes-browser-extension
ego-lite has 16,238 GitHub stars, 851 forks, 169 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. hermes-browser-extension has 1,542 stars, 147 forks, 15 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. ego-lite leads on adoption by 953% (16,238 vs 1,542 stars). ego-lite is written in JavaScript under MIT; hermes-browser-extension is written in JavaScript under MIT. ego-lite has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, hermes-browser-extension 10%. ego-lite was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (ai-agent, hermes-agent), 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
| ego-lite | hermes-browser-extension | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 16K | ★ 1.5K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | JavaScript | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 851 | ⑂ 147 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick ego-lite if
- You weight community size — 16K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick hermes-browser-extension if
- You want the hermes-browser-extension feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and hermes-browser-extension fits your workflow better
About ego-lite
ego lite is an MIT licensed browser from citrolabs that lets a person and their AI agents drive the same browser in parallel, aimed at developers who want Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, or a custom agent CLI to automate real, logged in web pages without surrendering the tabs they are using.
read the full ego-lite overview →
About hermes-browser-extension
Hermes Browser Extension is a Chrome, Edge, and Chromium side panel that connects the web page a user is viewing to a real Hermes Agent runtime, whether that runtime runs locally or on a gateway the user controls.
read the full hermes-browser-extension overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is ego-lite or hermes-browser-extension more popular?
ego-lite has 16,238 GitHub stars and hermes-browser-extension has 1,542. ego-lite has the larger community by that measure.
Are ego-lite and hermes-browser-extension free?
Both are open source. ego-lite is licensed under MIT and hermes-browser-extension under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between ego-lite and hermes-browser-extension?
ego-lite is written in JavaScript and hermes-browser-extension in JavaScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, ego-lite or hermes-browser-extension?
Choose ego-lite if you want the larger community (16,238 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose hermes-browser-extension if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.