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LangGraph Alternatives: 10 Options Compared

2026-11-14

POLYROB ships goals and scheduled jobs that survive a restart (docs/guide/[email protected]), which is the part of an agent that LangGraph hands you as a library to wire in yourself. If you want to keep writing graphs, the closest LangGraph alternatives are Microsoft Agent Framework, Google ADK and Mastra. If you want an agent that already exists, install POLYROB.

LangGraph alternatives are other frameworks and agents that cover the same job: running a long, stateful agent with tools, human approval and memory. This page compares ten of them using each project’s own README, read on 2026-11-14, with a link beside every claim. We build POLYROB, so it goes last, with a section on where it loses.

Which LangGraph alternatives are worth a look?

Licenses come from each repository’s LICENSE file, or from its README badge where marked. “Not checked” means we did not read the file, not that the project lacks a license.

Why look for a LangGraph alternative?

The reasons that come up are practical, and none of them is “LangGraph is bad”.

You want the agent, not the orchestration layer. The LangGraph README calls it a low-level orchestration framework, and a tip in the same file points people who want to build agents quickly to Deep Agents, a higher-level package built on LangGraph. You choose the nodes, the state and the edges. That control is the point for some teams and the cost for others.

You want to stay out of one vendor’s tooling. The README pairs debugging with LangSmith and production deployment with LangSmith Deployment. LangGraph can be used without LangChain, as its README says, but the surrounding tools are LangChain’s. If you want tracing and hosting from somewhere else, other frameworks below ship OpenTelemetry or a different hosting path.

You work in a different language or cloud. LangGraph has a Python library and a JavaScript one. If your stack is .NET, TypeScript or Google Cloud, a framework built for it may fit better.

If none of these applies, there is little reason to move. For the difference between the two LangChain libraries, see LangChain vs LangGraph.

What are the best LangGraph alternatives?

CrewAI

CrewAI says it is “an open-source Python framework with high-level abstractions and low-level APIs for building production-ready multi-agent workflows”. It has two parts: Crews, which are role-based agents that collaborate, and Flows, which give event-driven control and can include single LLM calls. A commercial suite, CrewAI AMP, adds managed deployment, observability and governance (README, 2026-11-14).

Pick it if your problem looks like a team of agents with roles rather than a single graph.

OpenAI Agents SDK

The SDK’s README lists agents, handoffs, guardrails, human in the loop, sessions and tracing as core concepts. It is provider-agnostic: it supports the OpenAI Responses and Chat Completions APIs and, in its words, “100+ other LLMs”. It also documents sandbox, realtime and voice agents (README, 2026-11-14).

Pick it if you want a small set of primitives and are already on OpenAI’s APIs.

Pydantic AI

Pydantic AI is a typed agent loop. Its README lists durable execution on nine engines, among them Temporal, DBOS and Prefect, so a run “survives restarts, failures, and long waits” on a system you already operate. Human-in-the-loop tool approval is built in (README, 2026-11-14).

Pick it if your team already uses Pydantic and Temporal, and you would rather add durability from an existing engine than from the framework.

Google ADK

ADK 2.0 includes a graph-based Workflow Runtime with routing, fan-out and fan-in, loops, retry, state management and human-in-the-loop. The README says it is optimized for Gemini but model-agnostic, and lists versions for Java, Kotlin, Go and TypeScript (README, 2026-11-14).

Pick it if you want graph workflows like LangGraph’s and run on Google Cloud, or need one framework across several languages.

Microsoft Agent Framework

Microsoft Agent Framework supports sequential, concurrent, handoff and group collaboration patterns in graph-based workflows, with checkpointing, streaming, human-in-the-loop and time-travel. It also lists OpenTelemetry observability and declarative agents defined in YAML (README, 2026-11-14).

Pick it if you are on .NET or Azure, or you inherited AutoGen code.

Mastra

Mastra is for TypeScript. Its README lists a graph-based workflow engine with .then(), .branch() and .parallel(), suspend and resume for human approval backed by storage, routing to 40+ model providers, and MCP servers (README, 2026-11-14).

Pick it if the agent lives inside a React, Next.js or Node app.

smolagents

smolagents, from Hugging Face, says the agent logic fits in about 1,000 lines of code. Its CodeAgent writes its actions as code, and the README lists sandboxed execution through Blaxel, E2B, Modal or Docker (README, 2026-11-14).

Pick it if you want a small codebase you can read in an afternoon, and are happy with code as the action format.

Agno

Agno calls itself an agent platform. You build agents, then run them as durable services on AgentOS, which its README says handles authentication, role-based access, resume and replay, human approvals and scheduling (README, 2026-11-14).

Pick it if you are building agents for a company or product and want the service layer included.

AutoGen

AutoGen’s README opens with a notice that the project is archived and no longer maintained by Microsoft, warns that unfixed vulnerabilities may remain, and sends new users to Microsoft Agent Framework (README, 2026-11-14). It is on this list because people search for it, not because we suggest it for new work.

POLYROB

POLYROB is not a framework you import. It is the agent. You give it a task or a standing goal in plain language, and it plans the steps, uses tools (web, files, code, a shell, mail, MCP servers) and reports back in a terminal, a web console, a REST API or a chat app ([email protected]). The license is MIT ([email protected]) and it needs Python 3.11 or newer ([email protected]).

curl -fsSL https://polyrob.dev/install.sh | bash
polyrob doctor

What you get without writing a graph, and the file that backs each point:

• Restart-surviving work. Jobs and goals survive a restart, and a fresh install starts with none (docs/guide/[email protected]). That is the durable-execution job LangGraph describes, done by the product instead of by your code.
• A cap on every autonomous run. 150 steps and $2.00 by default, with the stop reason reported (docs/[email protected], AUTONOMOUS_MAX_STEPS and AUTONOMOUS_RUN_BUDGET_USD). Autonomous loops stay off until you run polyrob autonomy on (docs/[email protected]).
• Human approval that waits. A decision that needs you goes to an owner-approval queue that survives a restart, rather than a wait held in memory (docs/[email protected]).
• Your own models. Native clients for OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, DeepSeek, OpenRouter and NVIDIA, and any OpenAI-compatible endpoint through a providers file (modules/llm/*[email protected], docs/[email protected]). See running an LLM locally.
• MCP. An MCP client for tools from any MCP server (tools/mcp/[email protected]). Our MCP client explainer shows the setup.
• Sub-agents for delegated work (agents/task/agent/[email protected]).

Pick it if the job is “keep working on this and ask me before anything big”, and you would rather configure an agent than assemble one. The self-hosted AI agent guide covers the full install.

Where does POLYROB lose to LangGraph?

• It is not a graph library. If you need to draw the control flow yourself, with named nodes, branches and your own state schema, LangGraph and the other frameworks above are the right tool. POLYROB gives you an agent loop, not a graph to edit.
• A smaller community. LangGraph has a forum, an academy course and case studies listed in its README. POLYROB is a young project (docs/[email protected]).
• Python only. There is no TypeScript, .NET or Java version.
• No migration tool. The migration guides cover Hermes and OpenClaw, and none covers LangGraph (docs/guide/migration/). Moving a LangGraph app means rebuilding it.
• No hosted version. The README says there is none, so there is no equivalent of LangSmith Deployment ([email protected]).

How do you choose a LangGraph alternative?

Do not pick from a table alone. Build the same small job in your top two and keep the one you would rather debug. If you are weighing the LangChain side of the choice too, read LangChain alternatives.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best alternative to LangGraph?

There is no single best one. Google ADK and Microsoft Agent Framework are the closest in shape, since both describe graph-based workflows with human-in-the-loop. Mastra fits TypeScript. CrewAI fits role-based teams. POLYROB fits someone who wants a finished, self-hosted agent instead of a framework.

Is LangGraph free?

Yes. The LangGraph repository’s LICENSE file is MIT, so the library is free to use. LangSmith, which its README recommends for debugging, and LangSmith Deployment are separate LangChain products, and we did not check their pricing.

Can you use LangGraph without LangChain?

Yes. The LangGraph README says it “can be used without LangChain”. The README also describes it as built by LangChain Inc, and it pairs LangGraph with LangChain products.

Is AutoGen a good LangGraph alternative?

Not for new work. On 2026-11-14 the AutoGen README says the project is archived and unmaintained, and points new users to Microsoft Agent Framework.

Do I need a framework to build an AI agent?

Not always. POLYROB’s agent loop and LLM layer are native code, with no third-party agent framework ([email protected]). A framework pays off when you build your own product around an agent. A ready-made agent pays off when you want to use one.

Sources

Fetched 2026-11-14: the READMEs of LangGraph, CrewAI, OpenAI Agents SDK, Pydantic AI, Google ADK, Microsoft Agent Framework, Mastra, smolagents, Agno and AutoGen, and the LICENSE files of LangGraph, OpenAI Agents SDK, Pydantic AI, Microsoft Agent Framework, smolagents and Agno. POLYROB facts are from the public repository at tag v1.7.9. These projects change quickly, so check each link before you decide.

To try an agent that is already built, install POLYROB. For other comparisons, see OpenClaw alternatives and n8n alternatives.

POLYROB is an open-source AI agent you run and own. Install it or read the docs.