head to head · open source
Hermes Agent vs Cherry Studio
Hermes Agent has 246,492 GitHub stars, 51,615 forks, 41,784 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Cherry Studio has 51,923 stars, 4,976 forks, 1,514 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Hermes Agent leads on adoption by 375% (246,492 vs 51,923 stars). Hermes Agent is written in Python under MIT; Cherry Studio is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0. Hermes Agent has attracted 21% as many forks as stars, Cherry Studio 10%. Hermes Agent was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 4 topic tags (ai-agent, claude-code, codex, 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
| Hermes Agent | Cherry Studio | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 246K | ★ 52K |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Python | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 52K | ⑂ 5.0K |
| 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 Cherry Studio if
- You want the Cherry Studio feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Cherry Studio 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 Cherry Studio
Cherry Studio is a cross platform desktop application for interacting with large language models, built in TypeScript under the AGPL 3.0 license. It operates in the AI interaction and interfaces ecosystem, providing a unified interface to access cloud hosted models (OpenAI, Gemini, Anthropic), web services (Claude, Poe, Perplexity), and locally hosted models via Ollama or LM Studio.
read the full Cherry Studio overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Hermes Agent or Cherry Studio more popular?
Hermes Agent has 246,492 GitHub stars and Cherry Studio has 51,923. Hermes Agent has the larger community by that measure.
Are Hermes Agent and Cherry Studio free?
Both are open source. Hermes Agent is licensed under MIT and Cherry Studio under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Hermes Agent and Cherry Studio?
Hermes Agent is written in Python and Cherry Studio 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, Hermes Agent or Cherry Studio?
Choose Hermes Agent if you want the larger community (246,492 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Cherry Studio if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.