OpenClaw · OpenClaw community (created by Peter Steinberger)
★ 382,000 · highMIT-licensed self-hosted personal AI assistant ('the lobster way') that exploded to ~382k GitHub stars in months: any model, 20+ messaging channels (WhatsApp/Telegram/Slack/iMessage...), SKILL.md skills via ClawHub, Docker-sandboxed sessions, cron jobs, voice, and a live Canvas.
General / computer-useopen-sourcebyok✓ mcp✓ skills✓ local models⛨ optional
Nous Research's MIT-licensed 'self-improving' server-resident agent (Feb 2026, ~211k stars): model-agnostic with persistent cross-session memory, autonomous skill creation compatible with the agentskills.io standard, DSPy/GEPA evolutionary self-optimization, and execution backends from local/Docker to Modal and Daytona.
General / computer-useopen-sourcebyok✓ mcp✓ skills✓ local models⛨ optional
browser-use · Browser Use Inc. (YC-backed, SF)
★ 103,000 · highMIT-licensed Python library (103k stars) that lets any LLM drive a real Chrome browser via DOM+vision instead of brittle selectors, now flanked by a desktop app and a usage-based cloud with stealth browsers, proxies, and a 24/7 'Browser Use Box' agent.
General / computer-useopen-sourcebyok✓ mcp✓ local models⛨ optional
GPT Researcher · Assaf Elovic / open-source community (gptr.dev)
★ 28,100 · highThe original open deep-research harness (Apache-2.0, 28k stars): a planner/executor multi-agent pipeline that fans out parallel web and local-document searches into cited reports, with recursive tree-like 'Deep Research', MCP data-source integration, and any-LLM support.
General / computer-useopen-sourcebyok✓ mcp✓ local models
Manus · Butterfly Effect Pte Ltd (Singapore; ex-Monica)
highThe viral general-purpose autonomous agent that plans and executes multi-step tasks in a cloud VM (browsing, code, docs, slides), notable for Wide Research parallel sub-agents and for Meta's $2B acquisition being blocked by China's NDRC in April 2026.
General / computer-useproprietaryfreemium⛨ cloud-remote
OpenAI's built-in agent mode that absorbed Operator and Deep Research: a cloud virtual computer with browser, terminal, and connectors that researches, fills forms, and edits files, pausing for user approval on consequential actions and handing back control for logins/payments.
General / computer-useproprietarysubscription✓ mcp⛨ cloud-remote
Anthropic's non-technical desktop agent built on the Claude Code harness (no terminal required) that works over local folders, browsers (Claude in Chrome), and full computer use, with MCP connectors, Agent Skills, and plugins — expanded to web and mobile in July 2026 with cloud-run sessions for Max subscribers.
General / computer-useproprietarysubscription✓ mcp✓ skills⛨ optional
Credit-based all-in-one 'AI employee' workspace whose Super Agent mixes multiple frontier models with 80+ tools to produce slides, sheets, sites, and calls, and whose 2026 'Genspark Claw' gives each user a persistent cloud computer commandable from WhatsApp/Telegram/Slack/Teams.
General / computer-useproprietaryfreemium⛨ cloud-remote
Cloud web-agent from DeepMind-alumni startup H Company ($220M seed) that orchestrates sub-agents over its own Holo vision-language action models (92.2% WebVoyager at ~$0.13/task via open-sourced Surfer-H), with Holo 3 in 2026 targeting any-UI enterprise automation.
General / computer-useproprietaryfreemium✓ local models⛨ cloud-remote
London-based autonomous web agent with long-term memory and learned task reuse ('Teach mode') that briefly rivaled Operator on web benchmarks before Salesforce acquired Convergence.ai (closed 2025) and folded the team and tech into Agentforce, leaving the consumer product's future unclear.
General / computer-useproprietaryunknown⛨ cloud-remote
Perplexity's Chromium-based agentic browser (free on all four platforms since April 2026) whose sidebar assistant reads pages and tabs and executes web tasks in the user's own browser, extended by 'Personal Computer' on Mac to local file editing, local computer use, and voice orchestration.
General / computer-useproprietaryfreemium
Google's successor lineage to Project Mariner (shut down as a standalone May 2026): Gemini Agent plus the I/O 2026 'Gemini Spark', a 24/7 always-on personal agent on dedicated cloud machines with deep Gmail/Workspace integration, MCP tool support, and check-before-acting guardrails, gated to AI Ultra ($100/mo) beta.
General / computer-useproprietarysubscription✓ mcp⛨ cloud-remote