Murage vs OpenClaw

Both are free and open source. OpenClaw is a personal AI you configure, reachable from 29 chat apps. In Murage, a Chief of Staff builds a team for you, and new bots ask before they act. OpenClaw is coming to Murage as a bot engine.

The short answer

Same idea (your own open-source AI), but a Chief of Staff builds the team, and new bots ask before they act.

Which should you choose?

Murage

The app is free
On your computer
The AI you choose

Who does the work: A Chief of Staff and a team

OpenClaw

Free
Desktop and phone apps
Reachable from 29 chat apps

Who does the work: Multi-agent routing you configure

Download Murage

Checked against official pages and the sources below on September 25, 2026.

Same idea, one layer up.

You talk to one Chief of Staff. It builds the team, and each bot runs the engine that suits its job, on the plan or key you already have. An engine is the AI that does a bot’s thinking. To run teams and use tools, pick a tool-capable one: Claude Code, Codex, Hermes, or the built-in Fuigo engine with a supported model. A plain OpenAI-compatible endpoint works for chat and drafting only. Portraits made with Murage’s own avatar generator. See every engine

OpenClaw is coming to Murage as a bot’s engine

Keep OpenClaw. Soon Murage makes it stronger, with a team.

OpenClaw and Murage share an idea: your own AI, open source, reachable from your phone. OpenClaw is built around one assistant you configure and reach everywhere. Murage is built around a Chief of Staff who builds a team for each job and runs it on the engines you choose. OpenClaw is coming to Murage as a bot’s engine, the way Hermes runs today. Until then they’re separate apps, and you can run both.

What Murage adds on top

A Chief of Staff that builds and runs a team for each job, with no routing to configure
Claude Code, Codex and Hermes as full engines with their tools, on your own plans
Murage opens the one install line for each engine you pick, and your Chief of Staff walks you through the rest

Why the app is free Every engine Murage runs

Here’s what came back this morning.

The brief

“Go through my inbox before I get in. Draft replies in my voice. Send nothing.”

What came back

Twelve emails came in. The team drafted eight replies, set four aside, and left two questions only the owner could answer. Nothing was sent.

Needs from you, in the team’s own report

Dana Brooks, Acme Studio · RenewalThe prior contract terms
Jordan Lee, Brightline Design · Pricing for 20 seatsThe per-seat price, and whether we offer a pilot
Priya S. · Export to PDF?Confirm the exact steps
Ben C. · Refund requestMoney. Check the billing record first

Replay of a real run on demo data. The company is made up. Engine: Flux Auto, worked 1m 41s. Watch the run

You know how this usually goes.

The agent says done. You go check. The wrong 10% looks exactly like the right 90%. Murage doesn’t promise better answers than the engine underneath. It changes what reaches you: drafts you check instead of messages sent, a source next to each claim in a research page, and a reviewer bot on any team you want one on. New bots start on Ask.

Keep OpenClaw. It’s coming to Murage as a bot’s engine, the way Hermes runs today; until then they’re separate apps, and you can run both. OpenClaw’s own chat history, memory and settings stay where they are. Murage doesn’t import them.

Try one job.

Pick something you know well: the weekly report, a research brief, a set of follow-up drafts. Brief the Chief once and check what comes back against what you asked for. If it isn’t for you, the team’s memory and files are stored on your computer in files you can open, and the code is AGPL-3.0.

See one job from brief to result What carries over when you switch Read the code on GitHub

At a glance.

Ten things buyers weigh up, including the ones where they’re ahead.

What matters

Murage

OpenClaw

The app itself is free
Before your AI plan or key, which you pay for either way
Yes
Free, with no paid tier
Source
Yes
$0, MIT-licensed
Source
You choose which AI company does the work
Per bot or per task, from different vendors
Yes
Per bot: Claude Code, Codex, Hermes, a local model and more
Yes
Dozens of model providers, plus the Claude CLI as a text-only fallback
Source
Named agents that keep their memory
A standing team that lasts beyond one task
Yes
Named bots, each with its own notebook and managed memory
Partly
Multi-agent routing you configure
Source
Asks before acting outside, by default
Messaging someone new, posting, paying, deleting
Yes
New bots start on Ask; on Full access the stop line judges what each engine asks
Source
No
Host commands default to full access with asking off
Source
Memory stored on your computer
Not in a vendor’s cloud
Yes
Memory, files and chats on your computer
Yes
Markdown files on your disk
Source
Open source
A license you can read
Yes
AGPL-3.0
Source
Yes
MIT
Source
Reach it from your phone
Briefs and approvals away from the desk
Yes
The web app, plus your Chief in Telegram, Slack or Discord
Yes
Native phone apps and 29 chat apps
Source
Keeps working with your computer off, today
Hosted or on a server
No
Murage Cloud isn’t open yet
Partly
If you run it on a server
Source
Native phone app
An iOS or Android app, not a web app or chat bot
Coming
iPhone and Android app coming
Yes
Native iOS and Android apps
Source
SOC 2 report
What a procurement team will ask for
No
No SOC 2 report
Not stated
Not claimed: “no enterprise edition and no paid version”
Source

Each of OpenClaw’s marks links the page it comes from, checked September 25, 2026. “Not stated” means we couldn’t find it on the page named, not that it’s missing.

Both apps are free. AI usage and any hosting or optional services are separate. OpenClaw is MIT-licensed; Murage is AGPL-3.0.

See one job from brief to result

Where your work lives.

Murage

Your computer

MemoryFilesChats

Your memory, files and chats are stored on your computer. What a bot sends to your AI, and to any app or service you connect, goes to them.

OpenClaw

A machine you host

MemoryConfig

It runs on your machine or a server you set up, with desktop apps and native phone apps to reach it.

Who does the work.

You brief one Chief of Staff. It builds a team of specialists for the job, and the team keeps its memory for next time. You can put a reviewer on any team to check work before it reaches you. Portraits made with Murage’s own avatar generator.

OpenClaw

One assistant you configure and reach everywhere; you set up routing across agents yourself.

What Murage adds for an OpenClaw user.

A team built for each job

Murage’s Chief of Staff builds a team of specialists for each job and runs it. With OpenClaw you configure multi-agent routing yourself.

Asks first by default

New bots start on Ask. On Full access, a bot stops before messaging anyone new, posting publicly, paying, or deleting outside its folder, unless you have allowed it for that task. On Hermes and other ACP engines, Ask and the stop line cover only what the engine asks Murage about: shell commands and file edits. OpenClaw’s host commands run with full access unless you change them.

Claude Code and Codex as full engines

Each bot can run the real Claude Code, Codex or Hermes, with their tools, on your own plans. OpenClaw can call the Claude CLI as a text-only fallback.

Apps and teams out of the box

1,500+ connected apps through Flux Router or your own connected-apps key, and 68 ready-made team packages.

Where OpenClaw is ahead.

Fair’s fair. If one of these matters most to you, it may be the better choice today.

1
Far more chat apps
29 channels, including WhatsApp, iMessage and Signal. Murage reaches you on Telegram, Slack and Discord.
2
Real phone calls
A voice-call plugin places phone calls with realtime voice. Murage’s calls happen in the app.
3
More model providers
Dozens of providers. Both run local models; OpenClaw supports more runtimes (vLLM, SGLang).
4
Native phone apps and a huge community
Native iOS and Android apps, about 391,000 GitHub stars (checked September 27, 2026), a nonprofit foundation and the ClawHub plugin marketplace. Murage’s phone app is coming.

Which should you choose?

Same idea (your own open-source AI), but a Chief of Staff builds the team, and new bots ask before they act.

Choose Murage if

You want a Chief of Staff to build and run the team, and new bots to ask first (OpenClaw’s host commands default to full access with asking off)
You want Claude Code, Codex and Hermes running as full engines with their tools (OpenClaw uses the Claude CLI as “a text-only fallback”)
You’d rather have the team built for you than configure routing
You want ready-made teams for business jobs
You want to change a bot’s engine later without losing its job, notes, skills and routines

Download Murage

Choose OpenClaw if

You live in WhatsApp, iMessage or Signal (29 chat apps; Murage has 3 today, with WhatsApp coming)
You want it to place real phone calls, or to run on a server you host around the clock, today
You want a nonprofit-run project

Still deciding? Read how we check that a job is finished, then try one of your own.

Every detail.

Question	Murage	OpenClaw
Price to start	Free. No paid tier	$0 (MIT)
Usage	Nothing from us. Your AI provider bills as usual. Flux Router, Ferrox Labs’ optional credit-billed service, covers AI models, connected apps, voice, images and web search if you use it; your own keys work instead	Your model bill only
Where it runs	On your computer	Your machine or a server, with desktop and phone apps
Setup	Download the app. Murage opens the one install line for each engine you pick, and your Chief of Staff walks you through the rest	Install script, npm or desktop app, then onboarding and configuration
Which AI	The engine you choose, per bot: Claude Code, Codex, Hermes, Grok Build, Cursor, Google Antigravity, Kimi, Qwen, Droid, OpenCode, Pi, Fuigo (built in), local models (Ollama, LM Studio) and any OpenAI-compatible API (chat only). OpenClaw is coming. Local models run through Ollama, LM Studio and llama.cpp	Dozens of model providers, plus local models through Ollama, llama.cpp, LM Studio, vLLM and SGLang. It can call the Claude CLI as a text-only fallback and run Codex through Codex’s app-server
Where memory lives	On your computer, open to read and edit	Markdown files on your disk
Open source	Yes, AGPL-3.0	Yes, MIT
Approvals	New bots start on Ask. On Full access, a bot stops before messaging anyone new, posting publicly, paying, or deleting outside its folder, unless you have allowed it for that task. Replies in an existing conversation go ahead on Auto and Full access. No limits turns the stop line off. On Claude Code and Codex, the stop line also covers tools from MCP servers you add. On Hermes and other ACP engines, Ask and the stop line cover only what the engine asks Murage about: Hermes asks before shell commands and file edits, but not before MCP or connected-app tools.	Opt-in exec approvals and DM pairing; host commands default to full access
Teams	A Chief of Staff builds and runs a team for each job	Multi-agent routing that you configure
Chat apps	Telegram, Slack and Discord for your Chief	29 channels, including WhatsApp, iMessage and Signal
Voice	Call any bot in the app and just talk; bots leave voice notes. Send your Chief a voice message in Telegram, Slack or Discord and get a voice reply	Phone calls through a voice-call plugin (Twilio, Telnyx or Plivo)
Platforms	Mac, Windows and Ubuntu; Telegram on your phone. iPhone and Android apps coming	Desktop apps for macOS, Windows and Linux; native iOS and Android apps

Questions about Murage and OpenClaw.

Can Murage run OpenClaw as an engine?

Not yet. OpenClaw is coming to Murage as a bot’s engine, the way Hermes runs today. Until then it’s a separate app, and you can use both.

Is Murage as free as OpenClaw?

Yes. Both apps are free and open source; you pay your AI provider. Connected apps and voice in Murage use Flux Router credits or your own keys (a connected-apps key for apps; OpenAI, xAI, Groq, OpenRouter or ElevenLabs for voice).

Can OpenClaw run Claude Code and Codex too?

Yes, in its own way: it can use the Claude CLI as a text-only fallback and runs Codex through Codex’s app-server. Murage runs them as full engines under each bot, with its stop line on top.

Can I run Murage on a server?

Not today. Murage is a desktop app; Murage Cloud, which isn’t open yet, will run it on a server we look after.

Switching from OpenClaw or Hermes?

What carries over, what doesn’t and a first week: Switching to Murage.

Can my staff use it too?

Yes. Each person runs Murage on their own computer, with their own AI sign-in. Build a team once, export it, and everyone imports the same bots, skills and routines; logins never travel. Bots can post drafts to your team’s Slack channels through connected apps, with your approval. Shared always-on workspaces will come with Murage Cloud, which isn’t open yet.

Sources, checked September 25, 2026

Murage is made by Ferrox Labs, a small team. Spotted something out of date? Tell us and we’ll fix it.

OpenClaw is a trademark of its owner. Murage is not affiliated with or endorsed by the OpenClaw Foundation; the names and logos are used only to identify the products compared.

Other comparisons.

Try Murage free, next to OpenClaw or instead of it.

Give your first job to Murage.

Download the free app, connect the AI you already pay for, and tell your Chief of Staff what needs doing. Plan on about ten minutes from install to a working team.

Free · Download Murage

No account needed · Runs on the AI plan you already pay for

Murage vs OpenClaw

The short answer

Same idea (your own open-source AI), but a Chief of Staff builds the team, and new bots ask before they act.

Which should you choose?

Murage

The app is free
On your computer
The AI you choose

Who does the work: A Chief of Staff and a team

OpenClaw

Free
Desktop and phone apps
Reachable from 29 chat apps

Who does the work: Multi-agent routing you configure

Download Murage

Checked against official pages and the sources below on September 25, 2026.

Murage

OpenClaw

Price to start

Free. No paid tier

$0 (MIT)

Usage

Nothing from us. Your AI provider bills as usual. Flux Router, Ferrox Labs’ optional credit-billed service, covers AI models, connected apps, voice, images and web search if you use it; your own keys work instead

Your model bill only

Where it runs

On your computer

Your machine or a server, with desktop and phone apps

Setup

Download the app. Murage opens the one install line for each engine you pick, and your Chief of Staff walks you through the rest

Install script, npm or desktop app, then onboarding and configuration

Which AI

The engine you choose, per bot: Claude Code, Codex, Hermes, Grok Build, Cursor, Google Antigravity, Kimi, Qwen, Droid, OpenCode, Pi, Fuigo (built in), local models (Ollama, LM Studio) and any OpenAI-compatible API (chat only). OpenClaw is coming. Local models run through Ollama, LM Studio and llama.cpp

Dozens of model providers, plus local models through Ollama, llama.cpp, LM Studio, vLLM and SGLang. It can call the Claude CLI as a text-only fallback and run Codex through Codex’s app-server

Where memory lives

On your computer, open to read and edit

Markdown files on your disk

Open source

Yes, AGPL-3.0

Yes, MIT

Approvals

New bots start on Ask. On Full access, a bot stops before messaging anyone new, posting publicly, paying, or deleting outside its folder, unless you have allowed it for that task. Replies in an existing conversation go ahead on Auto and Full access. No limits turns the stop line off. On Claude Code and Codex, the stop line also covers tools from MCP servers you add. On Hermes and other ACP engines, Ask and the stop line cover only what the engine asks Murage about: Hermes asks before shell commands and file edits, but not before MCP or connected-app tools.

Opt-in exec approvals and DM pairing; host commands default to full access

Teams

A Chief of Staff builds and runs a team for each job

Multi-agent routing that you configure

Chat apps

Telegram, Slack and Discord for your Chief

29 channels, including WhatsApp, iMessage and Signal

Voice

Call any bot in the app and just talk; bots leave voice notes. Send your Chief a voice message in Telegram, Slack or Discord and get a voice reply

Phone calls through a voice-call plugin (Twilio, Telnyx or Plivo)

Platforms

Mac, Windows and Ubuntu; Telegram on your phone. iPhone and Android apps coming

Desktop apps for macOS, Windows and Linux; native iOS and Android apps