Manus AI Alternatives: 7 Open-Source and Local Agents Checked (2026)

The best Manus AI alternatives in October 2026, if you want something free, open source or local, are Eigent (an open-source desktop app with multi-agent tasks), OpenManus (the original open-source Manus clone), Hermes Agent and OpenClaw (the two biggest open-source personal agents), Kortix (formerly Suna, self-hosted for teams), OWL (a research framework) and Atomic Agent (a local-first agent with a managed local model). None of them is a drop-in copy of Manus. Manus runs every task on its own cloud computer with frontier models, and these tools run on your machine or your server with the model you choose.

We build Atomic Agent, so it is on this list. Its card says where it is weaker than Manus, and every other claim links to the project’s own repo, docs or pricing page.

Quick answer: which Manus alternative should you pick?

Pick by how you want to run it. Eigent for a Manus-like desktop app. OpenManus if you are comfortable in Python and want the original clone. Hermes Agent or OpenClaw for a long-running personal agent with chat apps. Kortix for a team on its own servers. Atomic Agent for a local model the agent runs for you, with approval before risky actions.

Why people look for a Manus alternative

Most people looking for a Manus AI alternative want the same kind of agent without three things: credits, a closed cloud, and uncertainty about who owns it.

Credits. Manus bills in credits that pay for “LLM tokens, virtual machines, and third-party APIs,” and the cost depends on a task’s complexity and duration, according to its credits help article. You cannot start a new task at a zero balance. Free daily credits are capped at 1,500 a month and work only with Manus 2.0 lite. Paid plans start from $20 a month for 4,000 credits and from $40 a month for 8,000, and the Team plan starts from $20 per seat. A research run that loops for an hour costs more than one that finishes in five minutes, which makes the bill hard to predict.

A closed cloud. Manus runs tasks on its own infrastructure with models it picks. The Manus 2.0 announcement of September 28, 2026 added Manus Studio, an upgraded desktop app, and a Computer Use mode that works on your own computer, but the agent, the models and the billing stay on Manus’s side. If you want to read the code, pick the model or keep files on your own disk, open source is the only route.

Ownership. Meta announced it would buy Manus in December 2025. On April 27, 2026, China’s National Development and Reform Commission blocked the deal and ordered it unwound, per TechCrunch. Manus’s own 2.0 announcement does not mention Meta, and on August 11, 2026 Manus said it would return to operating as an independent company, as CNBC and Reuters reported. For a tool that holds your documents and logins, that is a fair reason to want a fallback.

How we checked these Manus alternatives

We used primary sources: each project’s GitHub repo, README, release page, license file and official docs, plus Manus’s own help center and blog. Stars, licenses and releases were read from the GitHub API on October 23, 2026. A tool had to do the job people use Manus for: research the web, use a browser, read and write files, and run multi-step tasks. Coding-only agents were left out; we cover those in Claude Code alternatives that are still alive.

We did not benchmark these agents against Manus or each other. Where a project documents nothing on a topic, we say so.

The 7 Manus alternatives, reviewed

1. Eigent: best open-source desktop app for Manus-style tasks

Eigent is a desktop app built on CAMEL-AI’s open-source framework. It calls itself an open-source “Cowork desktop” and runs tasks either with one agent or with a “Multi-Agent Workforce” that splits work across agents in parallel. It is Apache 2.0, has 15,644 stars and released v1.0.6 on October 16, 2026.

• Where it runs: the v1.0.6 release ships a macOS build (Apple Silicon and Intel), a Windows installer and a Linux AppImage.
• Local models: the README’s recommended local deployment runs a local backend with “vLLM, Ollama, LM Studio, etc.” The quicker cloud-connected mode uses Eigent’s cloud and needs an account.
• Browser and files: built-in browser and terminal toolkits, MCP integration and skills, per the README.
• Price: the open-source app is free with your own keys or local models. Eigent’s pricing page lists cloud plans: Plus at $19.99 a month for 2,000 task credits and Pro at $99.99 for 10,000.

Note: the fully local setup means running Eigent’s backend server yourself, which is more work than the one-click cloud mode.

Verdict: Choose it if you want the closest thing to the Manus experience as an app you own.

2. OpenManus: the original open-source Manus clone

OpenManus started in March 2025 as a Manus replica that needs no invite code, built by contributors to MetaGPT. It is MIT-licensed with 58,765 stars, the most of any Manus-specific project. Its last tagged release is v0.3.0 from April 10, 2025, but commits continued: the latest on main is from August 16, 2026, when it moved browser control to Browser Use CLI 3.0.

• Where it runs: a Python 3.12 project you clone and run with python main.py, then type your task in the terminal. There is no desktop app.
• Local models: the repo includes an Ollama config example; the default example uses an OpenAI-compatible cloud API.
• Browser and files: Browser Use starts as a default MCP server, and its local mode “attaches to Chrome or Chromium automatically and needs no API key.” An optional data analysis agent produces charts.
• Price: free; you pay your model provider unless you use a local model.

Note: the README calls the multi-agent run_flow.py mode “unstable.” Expect a developer project, not a finished product.

Verdict: Choose it if you are comfortable with Python and want the most-starred open-source take on Manus to tinker with.

3. Hermes Agent: best for a self-improving personal agent

Hermes Agent from Nous Research is a personal agent that keeps memory, writes its own skills and runs from the terminal or chat apps. It is MIT-licensed, has 256,418 stars and released v0.22.5 on October 23, 2026.

• Where it runs: Linux, macOS and WSL2 through a one-line installer, native Windows through PowerShell, and Android through Termux.
• Local models: a managed llama.cpp runtime that downloads and sizes models for you, or any OpenAI-compatible server such as Ollama, LM Studio or vLLM. Its docs set a floor of 64,000 tokens of context for tool use, so small local setups need tuning.
• Browser and files: a browser toolset that launches its own Chromium by default with “No API key, no setup,” plus Browserbase or Browser Use cloud if you want them.
• Price: free. Nous Portal is an optional subscription that bundles web search, image generation and a cloud browser.

Note: Hermes is built around a long-running assistant you talk to over time, not a one-shot “make me a report” box. It suits people who want an agent that learns their habits.

Verdict: Choose it if you want the biggest open-source agent community and chat-app access.

4. OpenClaw: best for reach across chat apps and devices

OpenClaw is the most-starred open-source assistant, with 392,830 stars. It is MIT-licensed and released v2026.10.6 on October 22, 2026. Its README says it runs on your own computer and works in “Discord, iMessage, Slack, Teams, Telegram, WhatsApp, and 20+ more.”

• Where it runs: installers for macOS, Linux and Windows, plus native apps for iOS and Android.
• Local models: models are plugins, including local ones through Ollama, LM Studio and vLLM.
• Browser and files: a browser tool that runs “a dedicated Chrome/Brave/Edge/Chromium profile that the agent controls,” separate from your personal browser.
• Price: free; you pay your model provider.

Note: the README warns that “Tools run on the host for the main session unless you configure sandboxing.” Read our OpenClaw alternatives guide for its security history before you give it your accounts.

Verdict: Choose it if you want to message your agent from the apps you already use, on every device.

5. Kortix (formerly Suna): best for teams on their own servers

Kortix is the project that began as Suna, one of the first open-source Manus alternatives. It now calls itself “The open-source AI Operating System” and pitches itself against Claude Cowork and ChatGPT Work. It released v0.14.7 on October 22, 2026 and has 20,304 stars.

• License: the repo’s license file is the Elastic License 2.0. You can read, self-host and modify it, but you may not offer it to others as a hosted service. That makes it source-available rather than open source in the OSI sense.
• Where it runs: kortix self-host start brings up one Docker Compose stack, or you use Kortix Cloud. Each session gets an isolated sandbox on its own git branch, and work lands through a change request a person approves.
• Local models: “Any provider, your own API keys,” per the README. We found no local-model instructions there.
• Price: self-hosting is free; the managed cloud starts from $20 a month in credits with unlimited members, per the README.

Note: this is a platform for a company, with agents in Slack and Microsoft Teams, not a personal desktop app.

Verdict: Choose it if your team wants Manus-style agents on its own infrastructure with an approval step before anything lands.

6. OWL: best as a research framework

OWL from CAMEL-AI is a multi-agent framework for task automation, and the research project behind Eigent. Its README says the source code is Apache 2.0. It has 20,159 stars, no tagged releases, and its last code commit was on March 18, 2026; later commits only update a QR code.

• Where it runs: Python 3.10 to 3.12 or Docker, with an optional web UI.
• Local models: the README mentions an Ollama example, but the repo ships only examples/run_vllm.py for local serving, and the README says “we strongly recommend using OpenAI models (GPT-4 or later versions)” and warns that other models may do “significantly” worse on complex tasks.
• Browser and files: Playwright browser automation, search engines, document parsing for Word, Excel, PDF and PowerPoint, and Python code execution.
• Price: free; you pay your model provider.

Note: OWL is maintained as research code. For day-to-day use, its authors’ own product is Eigent.

Verdict: Choose it if you want to study or extend a multi-agent system rather than use a finished app.

7. Atomic Agent: best for a local model with approval before risky actions

We build Atomic Agent, so read this card with that in mind and check it against the repo.

Atomic Agent is a local-first agent under the MIT license. It runs as a desktop app on macOS 14+ (Apple Silicon), Windows (x64 and ARM64) and Linux (x64 and arm64), or as a terminal agent. The latest releases are CLI v0.6.10 and Desktop v0.0.4, both on October 21, 2026. It has 3,426 stars, the fewest on this list.

• Local models: it downloads and runs llama.cpp and an open-weight model for you, with no Ollama or LM Studio setup. It also connects to Ollama, LM Studio, OpenRouter and other cloud providers with your own API key.
• Browser and files: browser tools drive a real Chrome, Edge, Brave or Chromium through Playwright (the browser is not bundled, so you need one installed). Web search and fetch, shell, file read and write, and text extraction from PDF, DOCX, XLSX and PPTX are built in. Starter skills for PDF, XLSX and Pandoc help it produce documents. It also supports MCP servers, skills and scheduled tasks.
• Approvals: at the default level every gated action asks first: shell commands, file writes, HTTP requests. Web search and fetch run without asking.
• Telegram and Discord: Telegram is paired once from the terminal agent and then also runs alongside the desktop app; Discord is set up from the terminal only.
• Telemetry: anonymous usage metrics and crash reports are on by default, with no message content. analytics.enabled: false in the config turns them off.
• Price: free. Cloud models cost whatever your provider charges.

Note: it is not as capable as Manus on long autonomous tasks. A local model that fits on a laptop is weaker than the frontier cloud models Manus uses, and Atomic Agent has no slide or website builders and no video editor like Manus Studio. It works best on tasks you can check step by step. If you are new to the idea, what a local AI agent is explains it, and local AI agent vs cloud covers the trade-offs.

Verdict: Choose it if you want an agent that runs a local model for you and asks before it touches your system.

Manus alternatives compared

Three facts set these tools apart. Eigent is the closest open-source match to Manus as a desktop task app. OpenManus is the most-starred Manus clone but has no release since April 2025. Kortix is the only one that is not under an OSI open-source license.

“Free + model costs” means the software is free and you pay your model provider, or nothing per task if you run a local model.

If you’d rather stay in the cloud

Some people leaving Manus want another hosted agent, not software to run. Other lists point to ChatGPT agent, Genspark and similar products. We did not check those here, since none of them is open source or runs on your machine.

When to stay on Manus

Stay if you want results without setup. Manus runs every task on its own cloud computer, so nothing depends on your hardware, and it uses frontier models that handle long, many-step jobs better than anything you can run on a laptop. Manus 2.0 also added things none of the tools above match out of the box: Manus Studio with document, spreadsheet, slide, website, game and video tools, event-triggered automations from email, Slack and calendar, and a Cloud Computer for always-on projects. If a task needs many hours of browsing and building with little supervision, Manus is still the easier choice.

It is also fair to say that open-source agents move the work to you. You set up models, keys and browsers, and when a local model gets stuck, there is no support team. For a one-off research report, paying Manus credits can cost less than an afternoon of setup.

Frequently asked questions

Which one should you pick?

Start from how you want to work. If you want an app that feels like Manus, install Eigent and try it with your own API key first, then a local model. If you like Python and want to see how a Manus clone is built, clone OpenManus. If you want an assistant you message from your phone, look at Hermes Agent or OpenClaw, and our Hermes vs OpenClaw comparison helps you choose between them. If your team needs agents on its own servers with review before changes land, Kortix fits.

If research is the main job and you want it to run on your own hardware, see how Atomic Agent handles it on the AI research agent page, or download Atomic Agent and give it a small task first. Keep Manus for the long, unsupervised jobs where a frontier model still wins.

Licenses, releases and star counts were checked against the GitHub API and each project’s README and docs on October 23, 2026. Manus pricing comes from its help center and the Manus 2.0 details from its blog, both read the same day. We did not benchmark these agents against Manus or each other.