# Manus compared with open-source agent platforms

> Manus runs your task in its own cloud. The open-source agent platforms run where you do, and Kortix is the one you own end to end: open source, self-hosted or managed, with every change reviewed before it lands.

URL: https://manus-alternative.com/comparison

## Manus vs the open-source agent platforms

Six platforms on the criteria that decide what a team keeps. Kortix is open source and our recommendation.

| | Kortix (recommended) | Manus | OpenHands | OpenClaw | Hermes | n8n |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Open source | Yes. Open source; read it, fork it, audit it. | No. Proprietary and hosted. | Yes. The OpenHands agent is open source. | Yes. Open source, local-first. | Yes. Open source from Nous Research. | Source on GitHub; its terms restrict commercial use. |
| Self-hosting | Kortix Cloud, your VPC, or your own on-prem network. | Hosted only; web, desktop and mobile apps. | Locally, in Docker, on a VM, or in your cloud. | One Gateway on your own machine. | Seven backends, from a laptop to a cloud VM. | Docker on your infrastructure, or its cloud. |
| Model choice | Any model provider with your own keys. | The model Manus selects. | Any LLM you bring. | Hosted or local models you swap. | Nous Portal, OpenRouter, OpenAI, or your endpoint. | Any model, cloud or offline. |
| Company memory | Agents, skills, memory and connectors in one repo you own. | Tasks and output stay in the Manus app. | Conversation history and workspaces on your host. | State, memory and credentials stay on your hardware. | Persistent memory and skills on your server. | Workflow data in your n8n instance. |
| Review of agent work | A change request a person approves. | The result returns in the app. | A pull request opened on GitHub. | Pairing approval; tools run on the host. | Command approval, no review gate. | Human-in-the-loop approval steps. |
| Unit of work | One agent run on its own machine and branch. | A task in the app or Slack. | A conversation against a workspace. | A message in a chat app. | A conversation from a terminal or chat app. | A visual workflow of fixed steps. |
| Price shape | Self-host is free; the team plan is $40 per seat per month. | Paid plans; a team tier adds SSO. | Free to self-host; a commercial cloud is optional. | No paid tier, hosted service or token. | Free to self-host; Nous Portal is optional. | Self-hosted or n8n Cloud per plan. |

Manus, OpenHands, OpenClaw, Hermes and n8n rows come from those projects' own sites and repositories, checked October 2026. Kortix rows quote Kortix's own documentation. Verify each before you buy.

## Manus is hosted; these platforms run where you do

Manus is a hosted agent you cannot run yourself. You sign in, describe a goal, and it plans and executes the steps in Manus's cloud on a model Manus selects, then returns finished work ([Manus](https://manus.im)). Nothing about the product is published as code you can host. The comparison that matters for a team is therefore between Manus and the open-source platforms it is weighed against.

## What the open-source platforms give you instead

OpenHands is a self-hosted developer control center for coding agents. It runs agents locally, in Docker, on a VM or in your cloud, and its issue-to-pull-request automation reads a labelled issue, creates a branch, runs the tests and opens a pull request for review ([OpenHands](https://github.com/OpenHands/OpenHands)).

OpenClaw is an open-source assistant that runs on your own computer and meets you in your chat apps. State, memory and credentials stay on your hardware, and models are plugins you swap ([OpenClaw](https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw)).

Hermes is a self-improving agent from Nous Research. It builds skills from experience and keeps memory across sessions, on seven terminal backends from a laptop to a cloud VM ([Hermes](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent)).

n8n is a workflow engine for fixed steps you draw on a canvas, self-hosted or on n8n Cloud ([n8n](https://n8n.io)).

## Why Kortix is the one to own end to end

Kortix is the open-source AI Operating System: your agents, skills, company memory and connectors in one git repo you own. Each session gets its own cloud computer and branch, and work reaches main through a change request a person approves, because merge is default-deny for agents. Any model provider works with your own keys, and you choose where it runs: Kortix Cloud, your VPC, or your own on-prem network.

For a team the shape of the work is the point. A hosted agent returns an output, and Kortix returns a diff a person signs off on, inside a repo the team can clone, read and roll back.

## How the criteria separate the options

The comparison table on this page is the short version. Self-hosting, open source, model choice, where your memory lives, how a change is reviewed, and what counts as one unit of work separate the platforms, and each cell is taken from the project's own documentation. Kortix is our recommendation because it keeps the whole system, not one layer of it, in a repo the company owns.

For the wider field, including chat platforms and coding harnesses, see [open-source Manus alternatives](https://kortix.com/blog/open-source-manus-alternatives) and [how to choose an open-source AI agent platform](https://kortix.com/blog/open-source-ai-agent-platform).

## The path from a branch to a reviewed change

`terminal`

```sh
$ kortix projects clone <project_id> my-project
$ git checkout -b tighten-triage
$ git commit -am "Tighten the triage prompt"
$ git push origin tighten-triage
$ kortix cr open --head tighten-triage --title "Tighten the triage prompt"
```

Source: https://kortix.com/docs/git

From the Kortix Git documentation, a change lands on main through a change request a person opens.