# Alternatives to OpenAI Agents SDK The OpenAI Agents SDK is a lightweight, provider-agnostic framework for building multi-agent workflows with handoffs and guardrails. OpenAI Agents SDK ranks #9 of 10 in AI agent frameworks, with an Alt Score of 83. It is licensed under MIT and free from Free. 12 of 13 checklist rows are verified against a public source. Source: https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/openai-agents-sdk/ Category: AI agent frameworks ## Where OpenAI Agents SDK stands out - **Language (JS/TS)** — 3 of 9 apps with a verified answer have this ## Overview - **Who it's for**: Python and JavaScript/TypeScript developers who want a lightweight, code-first framework for building multi-agent LLM applications rather than a hosted, no-code agent platform. - **What you get**: A free, MIT-licensed open-source SDK for defining agents with instructions, tools, and guardrails; delegating between agents via handoffs; persisting conversation history with Sessions; and observing runs with built-in tracing. - **How it works**: You install the package (pip install openai-agents or npm install @openai/agents), define Agent objects with instructions and function or hosted tools, and execute them with a Runner that is provider-agnostic across the OpenAI Responses/Chat Completions APIs and 100+ other LLMs, with optional streaming and human-in-the-loop approval steps. ## Profile - **License**: MIT (verified 2026-07-16) - **Pricing model**: Free (verified 2026-07-16) - **Starts at**: Free (verified 2026-07-16) - **Platforms**: ? - **Status**: active (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 | [AutoGen](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/autogen.md) | 86 | MIT | Linux, macOS, Windows | | 8 | [Semantic Kernel](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/semantic-kernel.md) | 86 | MIT | Linux, macOS, Windows | | 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 | OpenAI Agents SDK | 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, Web | ? | Linux, macOS, Windows, Web | ? | ? | | Open source | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | Language (Python) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | | Language (JS/TS) | Yes | Yes | Partial | No | No | Yes | | Multi-agent orchestration | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | Graph / stateful workflows | ? | 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 | Partial | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ## Sources Sources for OpenAI Agents SDK. Each alternative is sourced on its own page. - **License**: MIT — (verified 2026-07-16) - Quote: “MIT License” - **Pricing model**: Free — (verified 2026-07-16) - Note: The SDK itself is a free, MIT-licensed open-source library with no paid tiers; usage costs are for the underlying LLM API calls, not the SDK. - Quote: “Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy” - **Starts at**: Free — (verified 2026-07-16) - Note: Same basis as pricing_model. - Quote: “Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy” - **Status**: active — (verified 2026-07-16) - Note: pushed_at": "2026-07-16T22:17:00Z"" — Repo pushed to same-day as research date; PyPI shows latest release openai-agents 0.18.2 published 2026-07-11, days earlier. - **Open source**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-16) - Quote: “We're committed to continuing to build the Agents SDK as an open source framework so others in the community can expand on our approach.” - **Language (Python)**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-16) - Quote: “set up your Python environment (Python 3.10 or newer required), and then install OpenAI Agents SDK package” - **Language (JS/TS)**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-16) - Quote: “The OpenAI Agents SDK is a lightweight yet powerful framework for building multi-agent workflows in JavaScript/TypeScript.” - **Multi-agent orchestration**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-16) - Quote: “Handoffs allow an agent to delegate tasks to another agent.” - **Human-in-the-loop**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-16) - Quote: “Use the human-in-the-loop (HITL) flow to pause agent execution until a person approves or rejects sensitive tool calls.” - **Streaming support**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-16) - Quote: “To stream, you can call Runner.run_streamed() , which will give you a RunResultStreaming.” - **Built-in memory / state persistence**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-16) - Quote: “The Agents SDK provides built-in session memory to automatically maintain conversation history across multiple agent runs, eliminating the need to manually handle .to_input_list() between turns.” - **Tool / function calling**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-16) - Quote: “Function calling: wrap any Python function as a tool.” - **Model-agnostic (multi-provider)**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-16) - Quote: “It is provider-agnostic, supporting the OpenAI Responses and Chat Completions APIs, as well as 100+ other LLMs.” - **Observability / tracing integration**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-16) - Quote: “The Agents SDK includes built-in tracing, collecting a comprehensive record of events during an agent run: LLM generations, tool calls, handoffs, guardrails, and even custom events that occur.” - **Managed / hosted deployment**: No — (verified 2026-07-16) - Note: Described throughout as a framework/library you install and run yourself; no fetched page describes a first-party managed or hosted runtime for deploying agents. - Quote: “The OpenAI Agents SDK is a lightweight yet powerful framework for building multi-agent workflows.” - **RAG support**: Partial — (verified 2026-07-16) - Note: Retrieval is available as a built-in hosted tool against OpenAI Vector Stores, not a general-purpose RAG pipeline (ingestion/chunking/embedding) that works with arbitrary vector databases. - Quote: “The FileSearchTool allows retrieving information from your OpenAI Vector Stores.” --- Ranked by verified data, never by who paid. https://altcatalog.com/trust/