Head to head · Agent frameworks · October 2026 research run
Agno vs CrewAI
Agno scores 72.8 (BB) on agent readiness against CrewAI's 67 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Both do agent frameworks.
Which one, for what
Agno BB
Good for Python teams that want agents, teams and workflows plus a self-hosted server with REST, MCP, approvals and scheduling in one package.
Ahead on
- Reliability, 83 against 78
- Schema & documentation, 90 against 74
- Payments & pricing, 50 against 40
- Transparency & trust, 83 against 72
Also in its favour
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
Watch for
Usage telemetry is on by default and sends session, run and agent identifiers unhashed. Prompts and outputs are not sent
CrewAI B
Good for Multi-agent role-and-task workflows and for teams that want Flows for ordered, stateful steps.
Also in its favour
- No key needed to call it
Watch for
Anonymous telemetry on by default, with no stated destination or retention
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | Agno | CrewAI | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 83 | 78 | Agno +5 |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 90 | 74 | Agno +16 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 76 | 80 | CrewAI +4 |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 64 | 65 | CrewAI +1 |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 50 | 40 | Agno +10 |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 86 | 88 | CrewAI +2 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 83 | 72 | Agno +11 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -3 | -4 | |
| Total | 72.8 · BB | 67 · B |
Facts side by side
| Fact | Agno | CrewAI |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | Agent framework | Agent framework |
| Vendor | Agno Inc. | CrewAI |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports | ||
| Auth | API key | None |
| Pricing | Free | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-02 | 2026-09-28 |
| Terms last updated | couldn't be read | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | couldn't be read | no document linked |
| Customer content may train models | couldn't be read | |
| Terms restrict automated access | couldn't be read | |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | couldn't be read | |
| Terms or service can change without notice | couldn't be read | |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | couldn't be read | |
| Popularity | 43k stars, 476k PyPI/wk | 59k stars, 552k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 3/5 (2) |
Verdicts
Agno
An Apache 2.0 Python agent framework at 3.1.1 with an MCP client, tool confirmation and admin approvals, a durable job queue and 25 stable releases in 90 days. Usage telemetry is on by default with unhashed identifiers, and three high or critical advisories were published against it in the last 12 months, all fixed.
CrewAI
The mcps field supports MCP integration with static and dynamic tool filters. Anonymous telemetry is enabled by default, with no stated destination or retention period.
Before you call either
Agno
- Set AGNO_TELEMETRY=false before the first run, and pass telemetry=False to AgentOS and to each eval, which ignore the variable
- Configure JWT_VERIFICATION_KEY with AgentOS authorisation switched on, or OS_SECURITY_KEY, before exposing AgentOS. With neither set, REST and MCP routes take no credential
- Mark tools that write with requires_confirmation, and resume with continue_run once every requirement is resolved
- Set tool_call_limit on agents. The default is None
- Install extras for what you use, such as agno[mcp] for MCPTools and agno[os,mcp] for AgentOS with its MCP server
CrewAI
- Set CREWAI_DISABLE_TELEMETRY=true before the first run
- Put MCP keys in headers, not in the URL as the docs' Exa example does
- Pin a stable version. Development builds share the crewai name on PyPI
- Add a PRE_TOOL_CALL hook for any tool that writes or sends
- Check the logs for MCP connection warnings. A failed server doesn't stop the agent
Questions
Which is better for AI agents, Agno or CrewAI?
Agno scores 72.8 (BB) on agent readiness against CrewAI's 67 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories.
Are Agno and CrewAI open source?
Yes. Agno is open source (Apache-2.0). CrewAI is open source (MIT).
Other comparisons with Agno or CrewAI
- AgentOS vs Agno
- AgentOS vs CrewAI
- Agno vs Claude Agent SDK
- Agno vs Docker Agent
- Agno vs Agent Development Kit (ADK)
- Agno vs LangGraph
- Agno vs Microsoft Agent Framework
- Agno vs OpenAI Agents SDK
- Agno vs Pydantic AI
- Claude Agent SDK vs CrewAI
- CrewAI vs Docker Agent
- CrewAI vs Agent Development Kit (ADK)
- CrewAI vs LangGraph
- CrewAI vs Microsoft Agent Framework
- CrewAI vs OpenAI Agents SDK
- CrewAI vs Pydantic AI
Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/agno-vs-crewai.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/agno.json·/api/v1/tools/crewai.json - From a terminal
anchor compare agno crewai(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "agno", "b": "crewai"}at/mcp, no key