OpenClaw vs openhuman
Two of the top projects in Assistants, side by side: who leads on each score part and who each one suits, then setup, license, activity and what each review found.
OpenClaw
Personal assistant gateway that answers in Discord, Slack, WhatsApp and Telegram
openhuman
Rust agent harness with desktop app, built-in memory and embeddable library
Verdict
OpenClaw ranks higher, 85 to 81. Of the 5 score parts we measure for both, OpenClaw leads on 1, openhuman on 2 and 2 are even.
- AdoptionOpenClaw leads by 37 points, 100 to 63: a wide gap.
- FreshnessEven at 100.
- Maintenanceopenhuman leads by 3 points, 94 to 91: close to even.
- Easy to runEven at 67.
- Agent-readyopenhuman leads by 55 points, 100 to 45: a wide gap.
Pick OpenClaw if you are
Self-hosters who want one assistant reachable from every chat app they use
- Channels for Discord, iMessage, Slack, Teams, Telegram, WhatsApp and 20+ more from one Gateway
- Native companion apps on macOS, iOS, Android, Windows and Linux add voice, camera and screen
Pick openhuman if you are
Users wanting a self-run agent app, and Rust developers embedding agents
- Embeds as a typed Rust library, no sidecar or daemon needed
- Public benchmark repo; reports 68 MB peak memory and 19.8 s median task time
| What we compare | OpenClaw | openhuman |
|---|---|---|
| Score parts, out of 100 | ||
| Adoption | 100, widely used | 63, popular |
| Freshness | 100, active | 100, active |
| Maintenance | 91, healthy | 94, healthy |
| Easy to run | 67, easy | 67, easy |
| Agent-ready | 45, minimal | 100, ready |
| Facts from GitHub and the README | ||
| Stars | 392k | 42k |
| License | MIT (permissive) | GPL-3.0 (copyleft) |
| Last commit | Oct 2026 | Oct 2026 |
| Last release | Oct 2026 | Oct 2026 |
| Language | TypeScript | Rust |
| Docker | Yes | Yes |
| GPU | Not needed | Optional |
| arm64 or Apple Silicon | Mentioned | Mentioned |
OpenClaw
OpenClaw runs a local Gateway that connects one assistant to Discord, iMessage, Slack, Teams, Telegram, WhatsApp and 20+ other channels, plus native apps for macOS, iOS, Android, Windows and Linux. Model providers and agent harnesses (Claude, Codex, local models) are swappable plugins; state, memory and credentials stay on the host. The same Gateway serves one person or a team, differing only in configuration.
Who it is for: Self-hosters who want one assistant reachable from every chat app they use
Strengths
- Channels for Discord, iMessage, Slack, Teams, Telegram, WhatsApp and 20+ more from one Gateway
- Native companion apps on macOS, iOS, Android, Windows and Linux add voice, camera and screen
- No paid tier or hosted service; stewarded by a 501(c)(3) foundation
- Model providers and agent harnesses are plugins; swap Claude, Codex or local models
Weaknesses
- Tools run on the host for the main session unless sandboxing is configured
- Requires Node 24.16+ or 26.1+; the repo is pnpm-only, plain npm install is unsupported
- Daily version check phones home by default; disable with update.checkOnStart: false
- no GPU
- Docker + Compose
- Models: Claude, Codex, local models
openhuman
OpenHuman is a single-process Rust agent harness shipped as a desktop app (macOS, Windows, Linux), a terminal app, a headless server and an embeddable Rust crate. It bundles memory recalled with citations, browser and desktop control, MCP and skills, 14 messaging channels, durable workflows, and local or BYOK models. The README reports its own benchmark on ten SWE-bench tasks and claims 500 agents fit on a $10 VPS; it is labelled early beta.
Who it is for: Users wanting a self-run agent app, and Rust developers embedding agents
Strengths
- Embeds as a typed Rust library, no sidecar or daemon needed
- Public benchmark repo; reports 68 MB peak memory and 19.8 s median task time
- Local models (Ollama, LM Studio, MLX) or BYOK across 26 providers
- Approval gate, OS-jail or Docker sandboxing, secrets stored in OS keyring
Weaknesses
- Labelled early beta; README warns of rough edges
- Benchmark is self-run on only ten tasks
- GPL-3.0 license constrains embedding in proprietary products
- 119 OAuth app integrations go through Composio, an external service
- GPU optional
- Docker + Compose
- Needs Composio (OAuth integrations), Ollama / LM Studio / MLX (optional local models), Docker (optional sandbox)
- Models: Ollama, LM Studio, MLX, OpenAI-compatible APIs, 26 BYOK providers
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