Manus Alternatives After the Meta Breakup: Cue, OpenSwarm and Nous Hermes Agent Compared

Manus is back with more than $500 million, announced on 8 October 2026 and led by Boyu Capital and IDG Capital, after Chinese authorities forced Meta to unwind its roughly $2 billion acquisition. If you want a general-purpose agent but not necessarily Manus, the realistic options are narrower than the headlines suggest. Cue is Manus's own product, OpenSwarm is two unrelated products, and Nous Research's Hermes Agent is the only one here with a large open-source base.

This comparison reflects public pages as of 13 October 2026. Everything below comes from the makers' own pages and press coverage, and company numbers are the companies' claims.

Why are people looking for Manus alternatives now?

The Manus story changed twice this year, which makes buyers nervous. Meta announced the $2 billion deal in December 2025, Chinese authorities ordered it unwound in April 2026, and Manus resumed independent operations after the split. TechCrunch also reports that Manus had to delete some user data as part of the split.

The new round settles the funding question. It does not settle the product question. Manus has not disclosed a valuation, and its September 2026 relaunch as Manus 2.0 is a new architecture rather than a version bump, according to the company. Teams that built workflows on the old product have a reason to look around.

Is Cue an alternative to Manus?

No. Cue is a standalone app from Manus, launched on 28 September 2026. Manus says each personal agent gets "its own email, phone number, wallet, and computer", can pay within a budget you set, and can take your calls and leave a summary. Several agents can share a group chat and hand work to each other.

Per Manus's blog, Cue is "in early access and free to use with an invite code", and iOS is "coming soon after App Store review". Manus has not published a post-early-access price. Treat Cue as the other half of the Manus bet, not an exit from it.

What is OpenSwarm, and why are there two?

Two unrelated products share the name, and nothing on either page links them. Pick by what you want to do.

OpenSwarm, the desktop app. Its Product Hunt page describes "an AI-first operating system where agents run the whole machine". A maker clarifies it is a desktop app on top of your OS, not a real one. Agents appear as live cards on a canvas, and you can message or stop them mid-task. Tool actions in connected apps can be set to Ask, Allow or Never. It runs on macOS and Windows, with "no Linux build yet", and you can sign in with a Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini subscription or bring API keys. The listing says Free, and a maker says it is free for its private beta.

The page showed a "#1 Day Rank" and 383 points as of 13 October 2026. Product Hunt ranks and upvotes are weak traction signals. No license or open-source repository is published for this app.

OpenSwarm by VRSEN. This one is an open-source repository from the team behind Agency Swarm, pitched as "Claude code for everything except coding". An orchestrator coordinates eight agents: Virtual Assistant, Deep Research, Data Analyst, Slides, Docs, Image Generation, Video Generation and the orchestrator itself. It produces decks, reports, charts and documents from one terminal prompt. It is MIT licensed, installs with npx @vrsen/openswarm, and needs Node.js 20+, Python 3.12+ and an OpenAI or Anthropic API key. The repository showed 2.9k stars on 13 October 2026.

What is Nous Research's Hermes Agent?

Hermes Agent is an MIT-licensed assistant that Nous Research describes as "the self-improving AI agent". Per its GitHub README, it keeps agent-curated memory, creates skills on its own after complex tasks, and runs from one gateway across Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Signal and the command line. It also has a cron scheduler, subagent delegation and MCP support.

You choose the model: Nous Portal, OpenRouter, OpenAI or your own endpoint. It supports seven terminal backends, including local, Docker, SSH and Modal. The repository showed 253.2k stars on 13 October 2026. For a deeper look at self-hosting, see our Hermes Agent vs OpenClaw vs Claude Code comparison.

What did Nous raise, and what is it selling to businesses?

Nous Research announced a $90 million Series B on 7 October 2026, led by Robot Ventures, with Nvidia, Samsung and Y Combinator among the backers. Both SiliconANGLE and Crypto Briefing put its valuation at $1.5 billion. Crypto Briefing also lists Microsoft's M12, Union Square Ventures and Menlo Ventures.

SiliconANGLE describes three paid editions: Hermes Cloud, plus Hermes Business and Hermes Enterprise with team-level token limits and shared agent customizations. According to Crypto Briefing, features such as single sign-on, auditing and workspace controls are planned, and Nous says Hermes will stay open source. SiliconANGLE, citing the Wall Street Journal, reports annualized revenue of $36 million in mid-September. That is a press-reported figure, not an audited one. Our Hermes for Businesses vs Copilot Studio piece covers the enterprise angle.

How do Manus, Cue, OpenSwarm and Hermes Agent compare?

The table uses only what the makers' pages state. "Not stated" means no public figure is available.

Last checked: 13 October 2026.

Which Manus alternative should you pick?

Pick by the job, not the brand.

• You want a hosted agent and trust the new Manus: stay with Manus, and try Cue only if you can get an invite.
• You want a persistent assistant you control: Hermes Agent. It is MIT licensed, you choose the model, and it lives in the chat apps you already use.
• You want finished documents from one prompt: VRSEN's OpenSwarm, if you are comfortable with a terminal and your own API keys.
• You want to supervise many agents visually: the desktop OpenSwarm, accepting that it is a private beta with no license published.
• You need a vendor contract and support: none of these is clearly there yet. Hermes Business and Enterprise are the closest, but no public price is listed.

What's still unclear?

Several points remain open, and some weaken the case for each option.

• Manus valuation and revenue. Manus has not disclosed a valuation, so any figure you see is a report, not a company statement.
• Cue safety controls. Manus says users set payment budgets, but Manus gives limited public detail on how individual transactions are approved or reviewed afterwards. Giving an agent a wallet and a phone number is the riskiest feature in this group.
• Desktop OpenSwarm. The makers are listed inconsistently on Product Hunt, the site shows little, and no license is published. A maker also says step-by-step work where each step depends on the last gets nothing from a swarm.
• Hermes business editions. SiliconANGLE describes them as existing, while Crypto Briefing describes features as planned. Pricing is not published.
• Name confusion. Searching "OpenSwarm" returns both products, and neither page mentions the other.

Pricing and availability change quickly in this category. Check each maker's page before you commit budget.