Guide

Self-hosted AI agents

Hosted agents such as Grok Bot, Manus and Genspark run on someone else's computer and are paid by subscription or credits. The projects below browse, research and run multi-step tasks on a machine you control, with your own model keys or a local model.

Agents act on your accounts and files, so check what each one can reach before you connect it to anything important.

Quick answer

Facts checked 21 Oct 2026

We track 13 open-source general AI agents, each checked for licence, commercial use, hardware, paid services and setup. Openclaw, DeerFlow, Orca and Nanobrowser (and 6 more) run on your own machine, allow commercial use and need no paid service (you still choose a model: a paid API key or a free local one). Easiest to set up: Skyvern and Nanobrowser.

Read it as Markdown

Step-by-step builds

Each build names the repos, shows how they connect and walks through the steps. Every one has its own "Give this to your agent" prompt.

Build an AI agent that wakes up on a webhook, email or chat message When an email arrives, a form is filled or someone posts in chat, an AI agent starts, does the task and reports back. Advanced · A weekend Build a personal AI assistant for email, calendar and Telegram with open-source software Message an assistant on Telegram, by text or voice, and it checks your email, books calendar slots and remembers what you tell it. Intermediate · A weekend Build a life admin assistant with open-source AI agents Hand off the dull admin, like cancelling subscriptions, school emails and sorting photos, to agents you run. Advanced · A weekend per helper

Compared

Best ranked first (stars, recent activity and how many facts we could source). Unknown means we found no source, never a yes.

Project	Runs locally	Commercial use	Paid services	Setup	Stars
OpenclawThe AI that really does things. Any OS. Any Platform. The lobster way.	Confirmed: Yes	Confirmed: Yes · MIT	Partial: Optional only	Partial: See details	★ 393k
DeerFlowByteDance's self-hosted "super agent" for deep research, reports, slides and web pages, with Docker sandboxes, sub-agents, scheduled tasks and chat-app bots.	Confirmed: Yes	Confirmed: Yes · MIT	Partial: Optional only	Confirmed: Medium	★ 84k
OrcaOrca is the place for working with a fleet of agents (e.g. Grok Bot, Claude Code). Run any coding agent with your own subscription. Available on desktop, mobil…	Confirmed: Yes	Confirmed: Yes · MIT	Partial: Optional only	Confirmed: See details	★ 100k
AgenticSeekLocal Manus-style agent that browses the web, writes and runs code and plans multi-step tasks, built for local models via Ollama or LM Studio.	Confirmed: Yes	Partial: Conditions · GPL-3.0-only	Confirmed: None required	Confirmed: Medium	★ 28k
SkyvernBrowser agent that uses vision LLMs to fill forms, log in and run multi-step web workflows, with a local UI, no-code workflow builder and Playwright SDK.	Confirmed: Yes	Partial: Conditions · AGPL-3.0-only	Partial: Optional only	Confirmed: Easy	★ 23k
NanobrowserChrome/Edge extension that runs a browsing agent in your own logged-in browser, using your API key or a local model; asks before it submits or sends.	Confirmed: Yes	Confirmed: Yes · Apache-2.0	Partial: Optional only	Confirmed: Easy	★ 14k
OpenManusTerminal-based general agent from the MetaGPT team that plans tasks, browses the web and runs tools with your own model keys or a local Ollama model.	Confirmed: Yes	Confirmed: Yes · MIT	Partial: Optional only	Confirmed: Medium	★ 59k
Agent SResearch computer-use agent that operates your real desktop by looking at the screen and clicking and typing; CLI or Python, with your own model keys.	Confirmed: Yes	Confirmed: Yes · Apache-2.0	Partial: Optional only	Confirmed: Medium	★ 13k
Kortix (formerly Suna)Team agent platform (formerly Suna) where agents work in isolated sandboxes, in Slack or Teams and on schedules. Source-available, Elastic License 2.0.	Confirmed: Yes	Partial: Conditions · Elastic-2.0	No: Required	Confirmed: Medium	★ 20k
OWLMulti-agent assistant built on CAMEL-AI that browses, searches, runs code and reads Office/PDF files, with a local Gradio web UI and your own model keys.	Confirmed: Yes	Confirmed: Yes · Apache-2.0	Partial: Optional only	Confirmed: Medium	★ 20k
MagenticLite (Magentic-UI)Microsoft Research agent app for web research, form filling and file tasks, with a sandboxed browser VM and approval before critical actions.	Confirmed: Yes	Confirmed: Yes · MIT	Partial: Optional only	Confirmed: Medium	★ 10k
RakazoSelf-hosted open-source agent for persistent AI teammates with their own computers, memory and routines; bring your own model.	Confirmed: Yes	Confirmed: Yes · Apache-2.0	Partial: Optional only	Confirmed: Medium	★ 4.9k
II-AgentSelf-hostable Manus-style agent web app for deep research, slides, websites and documents, with app integrations and your own model keys.	Confirmed: Yes	Confirmed: Yes · Apache-2.0	Partial: Optional only	Confirmed: Medium	★ 3.4k

Common questions

What is Grok Bot?

Grok Bot is xAI's hosted agent product. Its docs describe named AI teammates, each working on a persistent cloud computer with a browser, filesystem and terminal. Access comes with paid Cursor plans or a linked SuperGrok subscription, and it has apps for macOS, Windows, Linux, iOS and Android. Source: docs.x.ai · overview

What are Grok Bot skills, routines and templates?

A skill is a saved set of instructions for a task, a routine tells one Bot when to run a workflow (on a schedule or after an event such as a Slack message or GitHub notification), and a template lets someone else start from a copy of your Bot. The builds on this page do the same jobs with an agent you host. Source: docs.x.ai · skills-routines-and-automations

Which plans include Grok Bot?

On The X Subscription it is included with Premium, Super and Ultra, not Plus or Free. Legacy paid Cursor plans include it too, and a SuperGrok subscription can be linked to a legacy Cursor account. Source: cursor.com · plans

Is there a free, self-hosted alternative to Grok Bot or Manus?

Yes. AgenticSeek needs no paid service at all. Openclaw, DeerFlow, Orca, Skyvern, Nanobrowser and OpenManus (and 5 more) are free to run, with paid services (usually a hosted model API) optional. The software is free; the AI model is the usual cost. A local model through Ollama or LM Studio costs nothing per request but needs a capable computer.

Which agents work with a local model?

AgenticSeek, Skyvern, Nanobrowser, OpenManus, Agent S, OWL, MagenticLite (Magentic-UI) and Rakazo document support for a local model (for example Ollama or LM Studio), so you can work without a paid API key. Small local models make more mistakes than the best hosted ones, so expect to check their work more often.

Which can I use commercially?

Confirmed: Openclaw (MIT), DeerFlow (MIT), Orca (MIT), Nanobrowser (Apache-2.0), OpenManus (MIT), Agent S (Apache-2.0), OWL (Apache-2.0), MagenticLite (Magentic-UI) (MIT), Rakazo (Apache-2.0) and II-Agent (Apache-2.0). With conditions: AgenticSeek, Skyvern and Kortix (formerly Suna). This is not legal advice; read each licence.

Which is easiest to set up?

Rated easy from their install docs: Skyvern and Nanobrowser. Each page links the exact install step we checked.

By paid product

Open-source alternatives to Grok Bot Included with Premium ($30/month), Super ($100/month) and Ultra ($200/month) on The X Subscription, not Plus or Free; also with legacy paid Cursor plans or a linked SuperGrok subscription (checked 21 Oct 2026) Open-source alternatives to Manus See pricing page (checked 16 Oct 2026) Open-source alternatives to Genspark See pricing page (checked 16 Oct 2026)

This page answers

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