Hermes Agent, the software, is distributed under an open license by Nous Research: its source code is public, and anyone with the necessary technical skills can install it on their own server. But being able to install it yourself doesn't mean it's the most practical choice for everyone — in the same way that, in theory, you could self-host your own website, without that being what most businesses actually do.
Having a third party host your agent offers several concrete advantages: no server to rent or secure yourself, no updates to track, ongoing monitoring that the agent is working properly, and a human point of contact if something goes wrong. That's the role Hermes Agent France plays: an independent service, not affiliated with Nous Research, that installs and operates the Hermes Agent software on behalf of its French clients, with support in French.
This delegated hosting model also changes the nature of the financial commitment. Instead of paying for a server and variable inference costs every month, a hosted service client pays a subscription with a capped amount, which can never exceed the price of the chosen plan, no matter how intensively the agent is actually used that month.
In short: Hermes Agent remains, from the software's standpoint, an open and independent project. Having it hosted by a third-party service is one option among others — the one that removes the entire technical burden — not an obligation tied to the software itself.
