# Alternatives to AutoGen

AutoGen is an open-source Microsoft framework for building multi-agent applications with conversable, collaborating agents.

AutoGen ranks #6 of 10 in AI agent frameworks, with an Alt Score of 86. It is licensed under MIT, free from Free and available on Linux, macOS and Windows. 13 of 13 checklist rows are verified against a public source.

Source: https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/autogen/
Category: AI agent frameworks

## Overview

- **Who it's for**: Python (and .NET) developers at teams comfortable building and running their own agent code, who want to prototype multi-agent LLM applications rather than use a managed platform.
- **What you get**: An open-source, MIT-licensed multi-agent framework (AgentChat, Core, and Extensions APIs) plus AutoGen Studio, a local no-code UI for prototyping agent workflows; note that as of this writing AutoGen is in maintenance mode, with Microsoft directing new projects to Microsoft Agent Framework.
- **How it works**: You compose agents backed by pluggable model clients (OpenAI, Azure OpenAI, local models, etc.), give them tools and memory, and coordinate them through built-in team patterns like round-robin/selector group chats or GraphFlow directed-graph workflows, with support for human-in-the-loop feedback, state persistence, and OpenTelemetry-based tracing.

## Profile

- **License**: MIT (verified 2026-07-16)
- **Pricing model**: Free (verified 2026-07-16)
- **Starts at**: Free (verified 2026-07-16)
- **Platforms**: Linux, macOS, Windows
- **Status**: maintenance (verified 2026-07-16)

## Ranked alternatives

| # | App | Alt Score | Licence | Platforms |
|---|-----|-----------|---------|-----------|
| 1 | [LangGraph](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/langgraph.md) | 100 | MIT License | Linux, macOS, Windows, Web |
| 2 | [LlamaIndex](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/llamaindex.md) | 96 | MIT License | ? |
| 3 | [CrewAI](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/crewai.md) | 93 | MIT | Linux, macOS, Windows, Web |
| 4 | [Haystack](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/haystack.md) | 93 | Apache-2.0 | ? |
| 5 | [Mastra](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/mastra.md) | 93 | Apache License 2.0 | ? |
| 6 | [Agno](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/agno.md) | 86 | Apache-2.0 | ? |
| 7 | [Semantic Kernel](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/semantic-kernel.md) | 86 | MIT | Linux, macOS, Windows |
| 8 | [OpenAI Agents SDK](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/openai-agents-sdk.md) | 83 | MIT | ? |
| 9 | [Pydantic AI](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/pydantic-ai.md) | 79 | MIT | ? |

Alt Score = Verified coverage (90%) + Visibility (10%). See https://altcatalog.com/how-alt-score-works/

## Feature comparison

Legend: Yes / No / Partial / ? (not verified).

| AI agent frameworks checklist | AutoGen | LangGraph | LlamaIndex | CrewAI | Haystack | Mastra |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Free | OSS + paid hosting | OSS + paid hosting | OSS + paid hosting | OSS + paid hosting | OSS + paid hosting |
| Starts at | Free | $39/seat/month (LangSmith Plus plan, includes LangGraph hosted deployment; usage-based charges apply on top) | $50/month (LlamaParse Starter) | Free | Free | $250/month |
| License | MIT | MIT License | MIT License | MIT | Apache-2.0 | Apache License 2.0 |
| Platforms | Linux, macOS, Windows | Linux, macOS, Windows, Web | ? | Linux, macOS, Windows, Web | ? | ? |
| Open source | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Language (Python) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Language (JS/TS) | No | Yes | Partial | No | No | Yes |
| Multi-agent orchestration | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Graph / stateful workflows | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Human-in-the-loop | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Streaming support | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Built-in memory / state persistence | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Tool / function calling | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Model-agnostic (multi-provider) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Observability / tracing integration | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Managed / hosted deployment | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| RAG support | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |

## Sources

Sources for AutoGen. Each alternative is sourced on its own page.

- **License**: MIT — <https://raw.githubusercontent.com/microsoft/autogen/main/README.md> (verified 2026-07-16)
  - Note: Applies to code. Docs/content in the repo are separately licensed under CC-BY-4.0 per the same Legal Notices section and the LICENSE file.
  - Quote: “grant you a license to any code in the repository under the MIT License”
- **Pricing model**: Free — <https://raw.githubusercontent.com/microsoft/autogen/main/LICENSE-CODE> (verified 2026-07-16)
  - Note: AutoGen is a free, open-source library (MIT-licensed) with no paid tiers or first-party hosted offering.
  - Quote: “Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy”
- **Starts at**: Free — <https://raw.githubusercontent.com/microsoft/autogen/main/LICENSE-CODE> (verified 2026-07-16)
  - Note: Same basis as pricing_model: MIT-licensed OSS library, no cost to use.
  - Quote: “Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy”
- **Platforms**: Linux, macOS, Windows — <https://microsoft.github.io/autogen/stable/user-guide/agentchat-user-guide/installation.html> (verified 2026-07-16)
  - Note: Installation docs give separate setup instructions for Linux/Mac and Windows.
  - Quote: “Linux/Mac: python3 -m venv .venv source .venv/bin/activate Windows command-line:”
- **Status**: maintenance — <https://raw.githubusercontent.com/microsoft/autogen/main/README.md> (verified 2026-07-16)
  - Note: README also notes upgrading from v0.2 to the current stable (v0.4-based) architecture via a migration guide; Microsoft now directs new projects to Microsoft Agent Framework instead.
  - Quote: “AutoGen is now in maintenance mode. It will not receive new features or enhancements and is community managed going forward.”
- **Open source**: Yes — <https://raw.githubusercontent.com/microsoft/autogen/main/README.md> (verified 2026-07-16)
  - Quote: “grant you a license to any code in the repository under the MIT License”
- **Language (Python)**: Yes — <https://raw.githubusercontent.com/microsoft/autogen/main/README.md> (verified 2026-07-16)
  - Quote: “AutoGen requires **Python 3.10 or later**.”
- **Language (JS/TS)**: No — <https://raw.githubusercontent.com/microsoft/autogen/main/README.md> (verified 2026-07-16)
  - Note: README describes cross-language support for .NET and Python only; no official JS/TS SDK is mentioned anywhere in the README or docs.
  - Quote: “It also support cross-language support for .NET and Python.”
- **Multi-agent orchestration**: Yes — <https://raw.githubusercontent.com/microsoft/autogen/main/README.md> (verified 2026-07-16)
  - Quote: “You can use `AgentTool` to create a basic multi-agent orchestration setup.”
- **Graph / stateful workflows**: Yes — <https://microsoft.github.io/autogen/stable/user-guide/agentchat-user-guide/graph-flow.html> (verified 2026-07-16)
  - Quote: “GraphFlow : A team that follows a DiGraph to control the execution flow between agents. Supports sequential, parallel, conditional, and looping behaviors.”
- **Human-in-the-loop**: Yes — <https://microsoft.github.io/autogen/stable/user-guide/agentchat-user-guide/tutorial/human-in-the-loop.html> (verified 2026-07-16)
  - Quote: “The UserProxyAgent is a special built-in agent that acts as a proxy for a user to provide feedback to the team.”
- **Streaming support**: Yes — <https://microsoft.github.io/autogen/stable/user-guide/agentchat-user-guide/tutorial/agents.html> (verified 2026-07-16)
  - Quote: “run_stream : Same as run() but returns an iterator of messages that subclass BaseAgentEvent or BaseChatMessage followed by a TaskResult as the last item.”
- **Built-in memory / state persistence**: Yes — <https://microsoft.github.io/autogen/stable/user-guide/agentchat-user-guide/tutorial/state.html> (verified 2026-07-16)
  - Quote: “it is useful to save the state of these components to disk and load them back later”
- **Tool / function calling**: Yes — <https://microsoft.github.io/autogen/stable/user-guide/agentchat-user-guide/tutorial/agents.html> (verified 2026-07-16)
  - Quote: “AssistantAgent is a built-in agent that uses a language model and has the ability to use tools.”
- **Model-agnostic (multi-provider)**: Yes — <https://microsoft.github.io/autogen/stable/user-guide/agentchat-user-guide/tutorial/models.html> (verified 2026-07-16)
  - Quote: “Since there are many different providers with different APIs, autogen-core implements a protocol for model clients and autogen-ext implements a set of model clients for popular model services.”
- **Observability / tracing integration**: Yes — <https://microsoft.github.io/autogen/stable/user-guide/agentchat-user-guide/tracing.html> (verified 2026-07-16)
  - Quote: “This capability is powered by the OpenTelemetry library, which means you can use any OpenTelemetry-compatible backend to collect and analyze traces.”
- **Managed / hosted deployment**: No — <https://raw.githubusercontent.com/microsoft/autogen/main/README.md> (verified 2026-07-16)
  - Note: AutoGen Studio (the only first-party app-like tool) is run locally ("Run AutoGen Studio on http://localhost:8080") with no first-party hosted/managed offering.
  - Quote: “It is **not meant to be a production-ready app**.”
- **RAG support**: Yes — <https://microsoft.github.io/autogen/stable/user-guide/agentchat-user-guide/memory.html> (verified 2026-07-16)
  - Quote: “The typically use case here is a RAG pattern where a query is used to retrieve relevant information from a database that is then added to the agent's context.”

---
Ranked by verified data, never by who paid. https://altcatalog.com/trust/