Facts checked through
Every AI agent app, compared with MausBot
Grok Bot, Meta Muse, OpenAI dots, Cue, Instinct, OpenClaw, Hermes and Claude Cowork, each against MausBot: price, models, where the agent runs, and what each still does better.
Eight personal-agent products shipped or relaunched in 2026, and every one of them keeps the model, the computer and your data on its maker's side. MausBot is the open-source version of the same idea: a team of AI bots in a chat app, each on the model you pick, running on your own machine, free under Apache 2.0. One page per rival below says what it is, why people switch, and what it still does better.
Side by side
| Product | Price | Models | Agents | Open source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MausBot | Free; Cloud plans from $29 a month | Claude, Codex, Grok and more, per bot | As many bots as you like, in rooms | Yes, Apache 2.0 |
| Bops | Free with $5 of AI credit once; Pro $20 a month; Max $200 a month; credit billed at cost | OpenAI only (GPT-6 family); Codex CLI for the Mac | A roster of named bots; the chief of staff delegates to specialists | |
| Grok Bot | Included with SuperGrok ($30), Cursor Pro ($20) and higher plans; no free tier | Grok only | A roster of named bots; group chats of 2 to 6 | No |
| Meta Muse | Free tier with a weekly token quota; Power $20, Maximum $100; card at signup, per press | Muse Spark only | One Muse, with hidden subagents | No; open weights for the Spark model are on the roadmap, no date |
| OpenAI dots | Included with ChatGPT Pro (reported from $100) and Business Premium; not on Free, Go or Plus | GPT-6 Astra only | One primary dot; teams of dots planned | No |
| Cue by Manus | Free in early access; a Plus membership is mentioned, price not published | Not disclosed | Several, each with its own identity | No |
| Instinct | Free during beta; no price published | Its own; no model choice | One Instinct, one thread | No |
| OpenClaw | Claude, OpenAI, DeepSeek, Ollama and more | One gateway, reached from 20+ channels | MIT, about 390k | |
| Hermes Agent | Nous Portal (200+), OpenRouter, OpenAI, Anthropic, local | One always-on agent you reach through chat apps | MIT, about 249k | |
| Claude Cowork | All paid Claude plans: Pro $20, Max $100 or $200, Team, Enterprise; no free tier | Claude only | One Claude with sub-agents | No |
One page per rival
Orgo (Organic Intelligence, Inc.)
Bops alternative
Bops, launched by Orgo on October 6, 2026, is a Mac app that runs a team of business-ops bots on OpenAI models, with Orgo cloud computers and, on paid plans, phone numbers and email addresses the bots can own, under a fair-source licence. MausBot is the open source alternative: a team of bots on any model, local-first, free under Apache 2.0, on Mac, Windows and Ubuntu.
Also searched: bops.bot, Bops by Orgo, Bops vs MausBot
xAI
Grok Bot alternative
Grok Bot is xAI's roster of AI bots in a messaging app, Grok only, on one shared cloud computer, included with SuperGrok and Cursor plans. MausBot is the open source Grok Bot alternative: the same shape, free under Apache 2.0, with any model per bot, running on your own machine on the accounts you already have.
Also searched: open source Grok Bot, open source version of Grok Bot, Grok Bot vs MausBot
Meta
Meta Muse alternative
Meta Muse is one personal agent in Meta's cloud, free to start, available in the US and Canada only. MausBot is the open source Meta Muse alternative: a team of agents instead of one, on your own machine, anywhere in the world, on the Claude, ChatGPT or Grok account you already pay for.
Also searched: open Muse, open source Muse, Muse AI alternative
OpenAI
OpenAI dots alternative
OpenAI dots are always-on agents inside ChatGPT, one dot per person, GPT only, for Pro and Business Premium subscribers, and not on Pro in the EEA, Switzerland or the UK. MausBot is the open source dots alternative: a team of agents on your own machine, on any model, free, with no plan or region requirement.
Also searched: open dots, ChatGPT dots alternative, open source dots
Manus (Butterfly Effect)
Cue by Manus alternative
Cue by Manus gives you several personal agents, each with its own email, phone number, wallet and cloud computer, behind an invite code. MausBot is the open source Cue alternative: the same team shape since August 2026, on your own machine, on your own Claude, ChatGPT or Grok account, with no invite, no card and no undisclosed model.
Also searched: open Cue, Manus Cue alternative, open source Manus
Spear Street Technology
Instinct alternative
Instinct is an invite-only personal agent you text on iMessage or WhatsApp; it runs on a cloud computer that holds your passwords and acts without asking by default. MausBot is the open source Instinct alternative: a team of agents on your own machine that sign in over OAuth, ask before they act, and need no invite.
Also searched: open Instinct, Instinct AI invite, is Instinct safe
OpenClaw Foundation
OpenClaw alternative
OpenClaw is the most-starred self-hosted agent: a gateway you run on a server and reach through WhatsApp, Telegram and twenty other channels, with shell execution set to full by default. MausBot is the OpenClaw alternative for people who want a desktop app with an approval gate, no exposed port, and any model per bot.
Also searched: OpenClaw alternative with a GUI, OpenClaw alternative for Windows, safer than OpenClaw
Nous Research
Hermes Agent alternative
Hermes Agent is Nous Research's self-improving open-source agent, reached through chat gateways and run on a server or your PC. MausBot is a chat app of bots, and Hermes is one of its engines: run Hermes with a GUI, next to Claude and Codex bots, with routines, rooms and phone companions, or run MausBot instead of a Hermes gateway.
Also searched: Hermes Agent with a GUI, Hermes Agent desktop, Hermes vs MausBot
Anthropic
Claude Cowork alternative
Claude Cowork is Anthropic's app for giving Claude your files, apps and browser, now part of the single Claude experience on every paid plan. MausBot is the open source Cowork alternative: a team of agents on your own machine where a Claude bot sits next to Codex and Grok bots, with approval cards and your data on your own disk.
Also searched: Claude Cowork alternative open source, Claude Cowork for Windows, Claude Cowork local LLM
How to choose
Start with one question: do you want one assistant or a team? Muse, dots and Instinct give you one agent and hide the rest; Grok Bot, Cue and MausBot give you named agents you can put in a room. Then ask which subscription you already pay for, where you live, where your data may live, and whether the agent has to keep working with your laptop closed. Our five-question guide walks through it, and the five-way comparison puts the big four beside MausBot in one table.
Why the open-source one is different
The closed agents differ in price and polish but share three properties: the model is a vendor, the computer is theirs, and you cannot read the code. MausBot inverts all three. The model is a setting on each bot; the computer is the one in front of you, or a cloud desktop when you ask for one; and the approval gate, the harness on 127.0.0.1, and the folder your data sits in are things a reviewer can open before the first message is sent.