Best free Google Agent Development Kit (ADK) alternatives

Looking for a free alternative to Google Agent Development Kit (ADK)? Here are 9 agent frameworks (developers) worth trying — 9 with a free tier. Google Agent Development Kit (ADK) itself is free.

ToolGoogle Agent Development Kit (ADK) (you searched)LangGraphOpenAI Agents SDKMicrosoft AutoGen
Pricingfreefreefreefree
Best forOpen-source Python/Java framework from Google for building multi-agent systemsBuild stateful, multi-agent apps as graphsLightweight agent orchestration from OpenAIMulti-agent conversation framework
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Google Agent Development Kit (ADK) alternatives — straight answers

What is the best free alternative to Google Agent Development Kit (ADK)?

LangGraph is the closest free alternative to Google Agent Development Kit (ADK): same Agent Frameworks (Developers) sub-category, and it is free. Build stateful, multi-agent apps as graphs

Are there free Google Agent Development Kit (ADK) alternatives?

Yes — 9 of the 9 alternatives listed here are free or freemium: LangGraph, OpenAI Agents SDK, Microsoft AutoGen, Pydantic AI, Mastra. None of them are paid-only.

Is Google Agent Development Kit (ADK) free?

Google Agent Development Kit (ADK) is free. There is no paid plan attached to it in the catalog.

How were these Google Agent Development Kit (ADK) alternatives chosen?

They are the other tools in Agent Frameworks (Developers), then the rest of AI Agents & Automation, ordered free tiers first and capped at 9. There is no sponsorship and no paid placement in that ordering — only the pricing tier decides.

All Google Agent Development Kit (ADK) alternatives

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LangGraph

Agent Frameworks (Developers)
free

✦ WhyA Google Agent Development Kit (ADK) alternative — Build stateful, multi-agent apps as graphs.

  • Build stateful, multi-agent apps as graphs
  • Human-in-the-loop and durable execution
  • Works with any LLM
  • Open-source with a hosted platform

OpenAI Agents SDK

Agent Frameworks (Developers)
free

✦ WhyA Google Agent Development Kit (ADK) alternative — Lightweight agent orchestration from OpenAI.

  • Lightweight agent orchestration from OpenAI
  • Agent handoffs, guardrails and tracing
  • Tool and function calling built in
  • Open-source, pay only for model usage

Microsoft AutoGen

Agent Frameworks (Developers)
free

✦ WhyA Google Agent Development Kit (ADK) alternative — Multi-agent conversation framework.

  • Multi-agent conversation framework
  • Event-driven, async agent design
  • Studio UI for prototyping
  • Fully open-source

Pydantic AI

Agent Frameworks (Developers)
free

✦ WhyA Google Agent Development Kit (ADK) alternative — Type-safe Python agent framework from the Pydantic team, validated structured outputs.

  • Type-safe Python agent framework from the Pydantic team, validated structured outputs
  • Model-agnostic (OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, Groq, Mistral, local)
  • Built-in dependency injection and streaming; pairs with Pydantic Logfire for observability

Mastra

Agent Frameworks (Developers)
free

✦ WhyA Google Agent Development Kit (ADK) alternative — Open-source TypeScript framework (Apache 2.0) for agents, workflows and RAG.

  • Open-source TypeScript framework (Apache 2.0) for agents, workflows and RAG
  • Drops directly into existing React/Next.js apps or runs standalone
  • Built-in workflow engine with suspend/resume and human-in-the-loop steps

Agno

Agent Frameworks (Developers)
free

✦ WhyA Google Agent Development Kit (ADK) alternative — Open-source (Apache-2.0) Python framework, 41.7k GitHub stars.

  • Open-source (Apache-2.0) Python framework, 41.7k GitHub stars
  • AgentOS: FastAPI-based production runtime for deploying agents
  • Control-plane UI for monitoring live agent systems across clouds

smolagents

Agent Frameworks (Developers)
free

✦ WhyA Google Agent Development Kit (ADK) alternative — Extremely minimal open-source library (~1,000 lines) from Hugging Face.

  • Extremely minimal open-source library (~1,000 lines) from Hugging Face
  • CodeAgent paradigm: agents write actions as executable code, not JSON
  • Model-agnostic and modality-agnostic (text, vision, audio) with sandboxed execution via E2B/Docker/Modal

AWS Strands Agents

Agent Frameworks (Developers)
free

✦ WhyA Google Agent Development Kit (ADK) alternative — Open-source (6,800+ stars) Python and TypeScript SDK from AWS.

  • Open-source (6,800+ stars) Python and TypeScript SDK from AWS
  • Steering handlers/hooks that catch agent mistakes before execution
  • Native Bedrock and AWS AgentCore integration, plus any-LLM support

DSPy

Agent Frameworks (Developers)
free

✦ WhyA Google Agent Development Kit (ADK) alternative — Open-source (MIT) framework from Stanford NLP, 37k+ GitHub stars.

  • Open-source (MIT) framework from Stanford NLP, 37k+ GitHub stars
  • Compiles/optimizes prompts automatically against metrics instead of manual prompt tuning
  • Production use at Databricks, Shopify, Dropbox, AWS; Shopify reports ~550x cost reduction

Google Agent Development Kit (ADK) head-to-head