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OpenClaw - Buy a Mac Mini or a VPS? Which? And Why?
MTUser2012
Member
I am becoming a heavy user of AI, and I am continue to be amazed what I can get it to do for me. So far, I am self taught and can't believe how productive Claude Cowork with agents like the browser extensions can do - it is managing my Google Adwords campaign. I was thinking of buying a Mac Mini and getting OpenClaw, but I see a least one provider here selling VPSs with OpenClaw installed.
Let's forget money, the initial outlay versus paying monthly as that doesn't matter to me. But time does. If you were in my shoes, what would you do and why? And, any good resources for a non-coder, baseline Linux command line guy, to increase my AI learning? And, anything else I should buy? I have subscriptions to ChatGPT, Claude (max), Perplexity, MidJourney, Leonardo and SuperGrok. For middleware, I also have Adspirer too.
Any/all advice/help/counsel gratefully received.
Comments
Openclaw is not useful as of me, I have delted all of my instances as of now,
I'll rather stick to my micro services that gets thw job done (everytime) and i dont need to worry about random bills
Thanks for your input!
Running mine on a KS-LE-B. Don't think there's a need for a Mac mini unless you are planning on running your models locally.
VPS and Mac mini both probably require the same amount of time. OpenClaw is open source and more flexible so it is kinda expected that you need to spend more time on it. My experience is that almost every OpenClaw upgrade fixes stuff and breaks stuff, but that's also part of the fun.
If Cowork works for you, there's nothing wrong with sticking to it.
Mini PCs are cheaper and you have MUCH more choice. Can run a headless Ubuntu 26.04 - and not some type of desktop o/s.
For a VPS you can go with 2cpu 4Gb for like USD20/year
That's a crazy deal. Mind sharing the link? Thanks!
Running your agent from a VPS means you can access it easily when you're not at home (or wherever you would install the Mac Mini or whatever device). It's not like it's impossible to make a machine available publicly from home, but I'd rather risk my VPS being compromised than my home network.
Mate, you need to check some of the offers right here. I got 8/200Gb for €50/year in the very boutique.
Just do a Ctrl+F and look for
yearOn the front page you find i.e."
https://lowendtalk.com/discussion/216610/little-creek-hosting-nvme-kvm-vps-epyc-nodes-starting-at-12-year#latest
ok., that is $24 - so keep looking...
Low end VPs with api calls
Hey. Today we can offer this
Try OpenClaw on a VPS first, and you'll realize it's just a waste of your tokens
Best setup.
VPS for openclaw (the brain), but as most said here, it really isn't groundbreaking stuff especially when you rely on external API services.
I recommend buying a local mac ultra (old one m1, m2) which larger ram 32GB+ to run a decent model, which you can host yourself.
This + API for bigger smarter model, that openclaw can pivot too for more demanding requests is the way to go.
Great point. I hadn't thought of that. I do make extensive use of remote control software like Splashtop. But, that is a strong point in favor of VPS.
Interesting. I am open to the possibility of token and by extension user farming. Does this comment come from actual experience on your part?
Looks like some great resources. I skimmed them already. Looks like a lot of work to setup. I need to think about that too as Claude Cowork is working fine for me right now.
Fair point! That’s exactly why we provided the step-by-step commands in the guide—to make the process as straightforward as possible.
If you want to give it a try on a high-performance environment, you can use the promo code EASTER25 to get 25% OFF on any VPS/Cloud instance. It’s a great way to secure a powerful setup at a fraction of the cost.
Feel free to use the guide whenever you're ready to deploy!
I found these very interesting deals from @Chunkserve
2 cores (xeon gold 6122) and 4GB for 16 euros and they might be still giving bonuses through their thread
https://billing.chunkserve.com/index.php?rp=/store/let-vm-special
Edit: It can actually be 16 dollars. Change the currency before ordering.
Is it just me or OpenClaw on npm does not use more than 1 thread?
I find setup via npm works okay-ist. It's weird that homebrew requires user but Claw's own plug-in want su. Though after that you can just give what ever needed to Claw and it will setup itself.
Mac mini is only useful for imessage
Openclaw is crap though
You deleted the spellchecking agent!
Before you know what you do use only free models from Openrouter or Nvidia. Once you know what you want try a cheap model, like deepseek v4-flash
It keeps happening after i started using samsung keyboard
Try PicoClaw first, it can even run on a pie nano.
This is really helpful to me. I think I'm just going to stick with using Claude and Cowork mode. It has been good at doing the things that I want to do and I have learned quite a bit. I don't need something that won't do what I want readily. That is just too much work.
Why not try Hermes-agent which replaceing the openclaw?
I'm tinkering with Hermes agent and so far I liked it