head to head · open source
Hermes Agent vs botman
Hermes Agent has 246,618 GitHub stars, 51,659 forks, 41,784 open issues and last shipped today. botman has 6,160 stars, 812 forks, 10 open issues and last shipped 6 months ago. Hermes Agent leads on adoption by 3,904% (246,618 vs 6,160 stars). Hermes Agent is written in Python under MIT; botman is written in PHP under MIT. Hermes Agent has attracted 21% as many forks as stars, botman 13%. Hermes Agent was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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 | botman | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 247K | ★ 6.2K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Python | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-04-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 52K | ⑂ 812 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Hermes Agent if
- You weight community size — 247K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick botman if
- You want the botman feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and botman 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 botman
BotMan is a framework agnostic PHP library for building chat bots that run across multiple messaging platforms from a single codebase, aimed at PHP developers and Laravel teams who want cross platform bot logic without writing separate integration code for every service.
read the full botman overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Hermes Agent or botman more popular?
Hermes Agent has 246,618 GitHub stars and botman has 6,160. Hermes Agent has the larger community by that measure.
Are Hermes Agent and botman free?
Both are open source. Hermes Agent is licensed under MIT and botman under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Hermes Agent and botman?
Hermes Agent is written in Python and botman in PHP. 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 botman?
Choose Hermes Agent if you want the larger community (246,618 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose botman if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.