Side-by-side comparison
AutoGen vs CrewAI
vs
Side-by-side comparison based on our agenticness evaluation framework
At a glance
Quick Facts
| Feature | AutoGen | CrewAI |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Multi-Agent Orchestration, Agent Frameworks & Orchestration | Multi-Agent Orchestration, Agent Frameworks & Orchestration |
| Deployment | Self-hosted | Hybrid (cloud + self-hosted) |
| Autonomy Level | Semi-autonomous | Semi-autonomous |
| Model Support | Multi-model | Single model |
| Open Source | Yes | Yes |
| MCP Support | Yes | -- |
| Team Support | Small team | Enterprise |
| Pricing Model | Free / open source | Freemium |
| Interface | api, gui, cli | gui, web, api |
32-point evaluation
Agenticness
12/32
Adaptive Collaborator
AutoGen
8/32
Guided Assistant
CrewAI
Dimension Breakdown (0-4 each)
Action Capability
AutoGen
3
CrewAI
2
Autonomy
AutoGen
2
CrewAI
1
Planning
AutoGen
2
CrewAI
1
Adaptation
AutoGen
1
CrewAI
0
State & Memory
AutoGen
1
CrewAI
0
Reliability
AutoGen
0
CrewAI
1
Interoperability
AutoGen
2
CrewAI
1
Safety
AutoGen
1
CrewAI
2
Scores from our agenticness evaluation framework. Higher is more autonomous.
Features & Use Cases
AutoGen
Features
- Builds multi-agent AI applications
- Provides a low-level Core API for message passing and event-driven agents
- Includes AgentChat for higher-level multi-agent patterns
- Supports extensions for model clients and tools
- Can connect to MCP servers for external tool use
- Works with OpenAI models in the quickstart examples
- Includes AutoGen Studio for no-code workflow prototyping
- Supports browser-based workflows through Playwright MCP
Use Cases
- Developing custom multi-agent assistants for internal workflows
- Prototyping agent workflows without writing code in AutoGen Studio
- Building tool-using assistants that can browse the web through MCP
- Orchestrating expert sub-agents for tasks like math, research, or domain-specific reasoning
- Extending existing applications with agent behavior and external integrations
CrewAI
Features
- Visual editor for building agentic workflows
- AI copilot for workflow creation
- Integrated tools and triggers
- Workflow execution limits by plan
- Cloud SaaS deployment
- Self-hosted deployment via Kubernetes and VPC for Enterprise
- SSO for Enterprise
- Secret manager integration for Enterprise
Use Cases
- Teams building production AI agent workflows with a visual interface
- Organizations that want to deploy agents in a managed cloud environment
- Enterprises that need self-hosted agent infrastructure on private cloud or on-prem systems
- Developers who want to prototype an agent workflow and later scale it for production
Pricing
AutoGen
- **Free:** Open-source framework; pricing details for hosted services or paid tiers are not publicly available in the provided content.
- **Pro:** Not publicly available.
- **Enterprise:** Not publicly available.
CrewAI
- **Free (Basic):** Free tier with a visual editor, AI copilot, integrated tools and triggers, and 50 workflow executions per month.
- **Professional ($25/month):** Includes everything in Basic, plus 1 additional seat, 100 workflow executions per month, and support via the community forum.
- **Enterprise:** Custom pricing. Includes SaaS or self-hosted deployment via Kubernetes and VPC, SOC2, SSO, secret manager integration, PII detection and masking, dedicated support, uptime SLAs, Slack or Teams support channels, and forward-deployed engineers.
Analysis
Our Verdict
If you’re engineering a custom multi-agent system and need maximum control over orchestration, tool wiring, and agent-to-agent behavior—especially MCP-based integrations and Playwright browser workflows—pick AutoGen. If instead you want a workflow-centric platform that teams can visually design, test, and operate, with cloud/SaaS or enterprise self-hosting plus security and operational features (SSO, secret management, PII masking, SLAs), pick CrewAI AMP.
Choose AutoGen if...
- +Choose AutoGen if you want a developer-first, code-centric multi-agent framework where you orchestrate agent-to-agent interaction using a low-level Core runtime and a higher-level AgentChat API (rather than building workflows mainly through a visual editor).
- +Choose AutoGen if you need flexible external tool integration—specifically connecting to MCP servers and running browser-based workflows via Playwright-based MCP—so agents can use tools/web in custom ways.
- +Choose AutoGen if your use case is building bespoke agent systems that you’ll integrate into your own app stack (it’s self-hosted and open-source, with Python 3.10+), including extending existing applications with custom agent behavior.
- +Choose AutoGen if you want to prototype agent workflows quickly but still keep full control: AutoGen Studio supports no-code workflow prototyping, while the underlying framework remains programmable for deeper customization.
Choose CrewAI if...
- +Choose CrewAI AMP if your priority is a production-oriented agent platform with a visual workflow editor and an AI copilot to help generate workflows, plus built-in workflow execution management (as opposed to assembling multi-agent behavior primarily in code).
- +Choose CrewAI if you want an easy path from prototype to production with hosted cloud deployment—and predictable limits like the Basic plan’s 50 workflow executions/month—without having to build your own orchestration, scaling, and operations layer.
- +Choose CrewAI if you’re an enterprise or regulated team that needs managed security and operations features: SSO, secret manager integration, PII detection and masking, and enterprise support/SLA options, with self-hosted deployment available via Kubernetes and VPC.