2 minute read
For a long time, Openclaw was my daily driver. It got the job done, and honestly, I didn’t
think much about switching, until it started getting in my own way. After a few months on
Hermes, I don’t see myself going back. Here’s why.
Stability, finally
The biggest issue I had with Openclaw was reliability. Random crashes, sessions that would
silently drop, updates that occasionally broke workflows I depended on, it added up to a
low hum of anxiety every time I opened the app. I never fully trusted it to just work.
Hermes has been a different experience entirely. It’s been rock solid, no crashes, no weird
state issues, no dread before hitting “update.” That kind of boring reliability doesn’t sound
exciting, but it’s honestly the single biggest reason I stuck around after trying it.
The new desktop app
Openclaw always felt like it was designed for the browser first and everything else second.
Hermes flipped that. Their new desktop app feels genuinely native, fast to launch,
responsive, and clearly built with real desktop workflows in mind rather than just wrapping a
web page.
Little things make a big difference here: keyboard shortcuts that actually feel considered,
smoother multitasking, and none of the sluggishness I got used to tolerating. It’s the kind of
app that makes we wonder why I put up with the alternative for so long.
Bot support (the real game-changer)
This is the one that sealed it for me. Hermes recently rolled out support for bots, and it’s
opened up a whole new way of working. I can now automate the repetitive parts of my
workflow instead of doing them by hand every time, something Openclaw never offered in
any real way.
Being able to hand off routine tasks to a bot and just focus on the actual work has honestly
changed how I use the tool day to day. It’s the feature I didn’t know I needed until I had it,
and now I can’t imagine going back to doing everything manually.
What really stands out is how easy it is to assign different models to different bots
depending on the task. A quick, low-stakes job can run on something lightweight, while
anything more complex gets routed to a stronger model, all without extra setup or config
headaches. And Hermes doesn’t hide any of this from you: it’s always clear which model is
handling which task, with full visibility into what’s running where. No guessing, no digging
through settings to figure out what actually executed a job.
The bottom line
Switching tools is always a bit of a hassle, and I don’t take it lightly. But between the
stability, the new desktop app, and especially the bot support, Hermes has more than
earned the switch. If you’re on the fence, this is your sign to give it a try.