Head to head · Agent frameworks · October 2026 research run
Agent Development Kit (ADK) vs Microsoft Agent Framework
Microsoft Agent Framework scores 82.2 (A) on agent readiness against Agent Development Kit (ADK)'s 74.7 (BB), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Both do agent frameworks.
Which one, for what
Agent Development Kit (ADK) BB
Good for Teams on Google Cloud or working outside Python, and for anyone who wants approval, guardrail callbacks and evaluation in one framework.
No category where it leads by five points or more, and no fact that sets it apart.
Watch for
Two critical CVEs in 2026, one of them in tool confirmation itself
Good for Teams on Azure or .NET, and for teams moving off AutoGen or Semantic Kernel, that want MCP, approval, checkpointed workflows and OpenTelemetry in one SDK.
Ahead on
- Schema & documentation, 95 against 87
- Agent ergonomics, 87 against 70
- Transparency & trust, 83 against 68
Also in its favour
- Free to start without a card
Watch for
Changes marked [BREAKING] shipped in minor releases of released packages, including agent-framework-core in 1.20.0 on 2 October 2026
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | Agent Development Kit (ADK) | Microsoft Agent Framework | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 80 | 78 | Agent Development Kit (ADK) +2 |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 87 | 95 | Microsoft Agent Framework +8 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 70 | 87 | Microsoft Agent Framework +17 |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 92 | 93 | Microsoft Agent Framework +1 |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 60 | 60 | even |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 87 | 91 | Microsoft Agent Framework +4 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 68 | 83 | Microsoft Agent Framework +15 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -4 | -2 | |
| Total | 74.7 · BB | 82.2 · A |
Facts side by side
| Fact | Agent Development Kit (ADK) | Microsoft Agent Framework |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | Agent framework | Agent framework |
| Vendor | Microsoft | |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports | ||
| Auth | None | None |
| Pricing | Free | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-09-25 | 2026-10-08 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-10-01 | no document linked |
| Customer content may train models | yes | |
| Terms restrict automated access | ||
| Terms restrict benchmarking | ||
| Terms or service can change without notice | ||
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | ||
| Popularity | 22k stars | 14k stars, 48k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3/5 (8) | none |
Verdicts
Agent Development Kit (ADK)
Python, TypeScript, Go, Java and Kotlin. Two critical CVEs in 2026, one of them in tool confirmation itself.
Microsoft Agent Framework
Python 1.21.0 and .NET 1.24.0 are MIT, past 1.0 and released about weekly, with an MCP client, tool approval, checkpointed graph workflows and OpenTelemetry. Breaking changes ship in minor releases, a version User-Agent and a feature-usage token are sent by default, and a high-severity advisory in the .NET declarative workflows package was published on 7 October 2026.
Before you call either
Agent Development Kit (ADK)
- Upgrade to 2.5.0 or later before relying on tool confirmation
- Always pass tool_filter to McpToolset
- Pin a 2.x minor and read the changelog's breaking section before each bump
- Install the bigquery-analytics extra if you use pyarrow, since 2.7.0
- Keep ADK Web off public interfaces, or run 1.28.1 or later at the least
Microsoft Agent Framework
- Pin exact versions. Minor releases have carried [BREAKING] changes, so read python/CHANGELOG.md or the upgrade guides before moving up
- Set
approval_mode="always_require"on tools and MCP servers that write. The default isnever_require - Pass
allowed_toolstoMCPStdioToolorMCPStreamableHTTPToolso only the named MCP tools reach the model - Set
AGENT_FRAMEWORK_USER_AGENT_DISABLED=trueto drop the framework's User-Agent and feature token, orAGENT_FRAMEWORK_FEATURE_MASK_DISABLED=truefor the token alone - On .NET, use Microsoft.Agents.AI.Workflows.Declarative 1.24.0 or later. Earlier versions could forward protected workflow values to an external MCP server
Questions
Which is better for AI agents, Agent Development Kit (ADK) or Microsoft Agent Framework?
Microsoft Agent Framework scores 82.2 (A) on agent readiness against Agent Development Kit (ADK)'s 74.7 (BB), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories.
Are Agent Development Kit (ADK) and Microsoft Agent Framework open source?
Yes. Agent Development Kit (ADK) is open source (Apache-2.0). Microsoft Agent Framework is open source (MIT).
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Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/google-adk-vs-microsoft-agent-framework.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/google-adk.json·/api/v1/tools/microsoft-agent-framework.json - From a terminal
anchor compare google-adk microsoft-agent-framework(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "google-adk", "b": "microsoft-agent-framework"}at/mcp, no key