head to head · open source
Hermes Agent vs agentscope
Hermes Agent has 246,492 GitHub stars, 51,615 forks, 41,784 open issues and last shipped yesterday. agentscope has 31,878 stars, 3,514 forks, 369 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Hermes Agent leads on adoption by 673% (246,492 vs 31,878 stars). Hermes Agent is written in Python under MIT; agentscope is written in Python under Apache-2.0. Hermes Agent has attracted 21% as many forks as stars, agentscope 11%. Hermes Agent was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (llm), 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
| Hermes Agent | agentscope | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 246K | ★ 32K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 52K | ⑂ 3.5K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Hermes Agent if
- You weight community size — 246K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick agentscope if
- You want the agentscope feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and agentscope fits your workflow better
About Hermes Agent
Hermes Agent is a desktop AI agent developed by Nous Research that maintains persistent memory and self improving capabilities across sessions and platforms. It operates as a local first, cross platform interface for LLMs, integrating with multiple model providers and deployment environments without vendor lock in. The agent implements a closed learning loop where it curates its own memory, creates and refines skills from experience, and supports cross session recall via full text search and summarization.
read the full Hermes Agent overview →
About agentscope
AgentScope 2.0 is a production ready agent framework written in Python and released under the Apache 2.0 licence. It provides a set of essential abstractions for building agents, and it is designed explicitly for increasingly agentic large language models. Rather than wrapping models in strict prompts and opinionated orchestrations, the framework leans on the reasoning and tool use abilities the models already have, so the agent logic follows rising model capability instead of fighting it. The project lives in the Python AI and machine learning ecosystem, with a documented homepage at docs.agentscope.io and a rep…
read the full agentscope overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Hermes Agent or agentscope more popular?
Hermes Agent has 246,492 GitHub stars and agentscope has 31,878. Hermes Agent has the larger community by that measure.
Are Hermes Agent and agentscope free?
Both are open source. Hermes Agent is licensed under MIT and agentscope under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Hermes Agent and agentscope?
Hermes Agent is written in Python and agentscope in Python. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Hermes Agent or agentscope?
Choose Hermes Agent if you want the larger community (246,492 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose agentscope if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.