An assistant that does the chores, on a server you own
What OpenClaw and Hermes Agent actually do for you, and which VPS fits how you will use them.
Two agents, two different jobs
Not two flavours of the same thing. OpenClaw wants to be everywhere you chat. Hermes wants to sit quietly on a server and get better at your recurring work. What you want it to do decides which one, and that decides the hosting. Written by someone who has run both since January 2026, on local models and on VPSes.
Where to run it
There is no best VPS for an AI agent. There is a best one for your agent, your budget and how much you want to do yourself. Five questions, one honest answer, renewal price included.
Five quick questions
Change any answer and the recommendation updates.
The six we compare
Sorted by what you pay after the introductory price ends. Two of them pay us nothing and are here because they are the right answer for a lot of people.
Still deciding? Start with one of these
What an agent like this actually does for you
Eleven concrete jobs, with the real message you would send. Read this first if you are not sure you need one.
OpenClaw vs Hermes Agent
Two shapes, two hosting profiles. Plus Paperclip, nanoclaw and Claude Code, because people keep asking.
VPS or a Mac mini at home?
The 24-month cost of both, including electricity, and the two cases where home wins.
Run it on your own LLM
Local, on a VPS or via an API: what actually works after eight months of trying all three, and the hybrid most people should end up with.
Questions people ask us
What does OpenClaw actually do?
It is a personal assistant you message from WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack or any chat app you already use. It answers from your own files, browses and fills forms on your behalf, runs scheduled routines like a morning briefing, watches for price drops or new listings, and drafts replies. It runs on your own server, so your data stays yours. The full list.
What is Hermes Agent for?
A small always-on agent for developers. You give it recurring technical jobs (read these logs, summarise this PR, keep this decisions log) and it writes its own skills from experience, so it gets better the longer it runs. Any model you choose, including a local one, and cheap to keep on 24/7.
How much RAM do I need for OpenClaw?
4 GB for chat and routines. 8 GB as soon as you turn on browser automation, because a Chromium session takes 2 to 4 GB by itself and leaves the agent starved on a 4 GB box.
Is Hetzner the best VPS for OpenClaw?
For technical users who work over SSH, yes: the CPX22 at about 7 euro per month is the cheapest fast option in Europe. No control panel, no one-click install, which is why beginners usually end up at Contabo or Hostinger. Our Hetzner guide.
Can I run OpenClaw or Hermes for free?
Oracle Cloud's free tier gives 4 ARM cores and 24 GB RAM at no cost. Capacity is often unavailable and idle instances can be reclaimed. Fine for experiments, not for something you rely on.
Do you earn money from this?
From some links, yes. Contabo, Hostinger, DigitalOcean and Cloudways pay a commission if you sign up through us. Hetzner and Oracle do not, and we recommend them anyway when they fit. How we test and how we are paid.