# 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. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-adk-vs-microsoft-agent-framework
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-adk-vs-microsoft-agent-framework.md (~2,200 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-adk-vs-microsoft-agent-framework.min.md (~580 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-adk-vs-microsoft-agent-framework.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-08

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.

- Agent Development Kit (ADK): grade BB, 74.7/100, rank #57 of 629. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/google-adk.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/google-adk.json
- Microsoft Agent Framework: grade A, 82.2/100, rank #6 of 629. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/microsoft-agent-framework.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/microsoft-agent-framework.json

## 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.

Watch for: Two critical CVEs in 2026, one of them in tool confirmation itself

### Microsoft Agent Framework (A)

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 | Agent Development Kit (ADK) | Microsoft Agent Framework | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 80 | 78 | Agent Development Kit (ADK) +2 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 87 | 95 | Microsoft Agent Framework +8 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 70 | 87 | Microsoft Agent Framework +17 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 92 | 93 | Microsoft Agent Framework +1 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 60 | even |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 87 | 91 | Microsoft Agent Framework +4 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 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 | Google | 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)

1. Upgrade to 2.5.0 or later before relying on tool confirmation
2. Always pass tool_filter to McpToolset
3. Pin a 2.x minor and read the changelog's breaking section before each bump
4. Install the bigquery-analytics extra if you use pyarrow, since 2.7.0
5. Keep ADK Web off public interfaces, or run 1.28.1 or later at the least

### Microsoft Agent Framework

1. Pin exact versions. Minor releases have carried [BREAKING] changes, so read python/CHANGELOG.md or the upgrade guides before moving up
2. Set `approval_mode="always_require"` on tools and MCP servers that write. The default is `never_require`
3. Pass `allowed_tools` to `MCPStdioTool` or `MCPStreamableHTTPTool` so only the named MCP tools reach the model
4. Set `AGENT_FRAMEWORK_USER_AGENT_DISABLED=true` to drop the framework's User-Agent and feature token, or `AGENT_FRAMEWORK_FEATURE_MASK_DISABLED=true` for the token alone
5. 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).


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-adk-vs-microsoft-agent-framework.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-adk-vs-microsoft-agent-framework.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "google-adk", "b": "microsoft-agent-framework"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare google-adk microsoft-agent-framework`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/google-adk.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/microsoft-agent-framework.json

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