# Mastra vs Microsoft Agent Framework (slim)

> Microsoft Agent Framework scores 79.4 (A) to Mastra's 74.2 (BB) for agent frameworks. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mastra-vs-microsoft-agent-framework.md (~5,000 tokens) · this version ~2,730 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mastra-vs-microsoft-agent-framework.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mastra-vs-microsoft-agent-framework
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-11-07
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Microsoft Agent Framework scores 79.4 (A) on agent readiness against Mastra's 74.2 (BB), and leads in 2 of 7 scored categories. Mastra leads on reliability, agent ergonomics and maintenance & community. Both do agent frameworks.

- Mastra: BB 74.2, rank #91 of 1510 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/mastra.min.md
- Microsoft Agent Framework: A 79.4, rank #18 of 1510 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/microsoft-agent-framework.min.md
- Mastra, good for TypeScript teams that want agents, workflows, memory, evals and a local Studio in one framework. Ahead on Reliability, 87 against 78; Agent ergonomics, 92 against 87; Maintenance & community, 96 against 91.
- Microsoft Agent Framework, 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 Security & auth, 93 against 67; Transparency & trust, 85 against 72. Also No key needed to call it; Free to start without a card.

| Category | Mastra | Microsoft Agent Framework |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 87 | 78 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 98 | 95 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 92 | 87 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 67 | 93 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 60 | 60 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 96 | 91 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 72 | 85 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Mastra | Microsoft Agent Framework |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | Kepler Software, Inc. | Microsoft |
| Auth | API key | None |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 for the core. Code under ee/ directories is source-available under the Mastra Enterprise License, free for development and testing | MIT |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-11-04 | 2026-10-30 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-10-26 | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | no document linked |
| Customer content may train models | yes | not read yet |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | not read yet |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | not read yet |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | not read yet |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | not read yet |
| Popularity | 29k stars, 3.1M npm/wk | 14k stars, 48k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 3/5 (4) |

Why the edge:
- Security & auth, Microsoft Agent Framework +26: Mastra 67 (The CLI sends PostHog analytics, server startup sends token counts per model and a count of registered agents, tools and MCP servers, and Studio sends browser analytics, all on by default and documented, with one opt-out, MASTRA_TELEMETRY_DISABLED=1. Since #26986 (16 October 2026) each server process also reports token use per provider and model every 15 minutes, and the telemetry reference read on 6 November says server events carry a project identifier that is a raw Platform UUID or a hash of the Git origin remote, so they "aren't anonymous" (12). requireToolApproval on agents and MCP servers, allowedHosts for MCP HTTP, a curated environment for stdio servers, and sandboxed workspaces (20). PromptInjectionDetector, PII and moderation processors, and docs that call tool results untrusted model input (15). Built-in tracing with OpenTelemetry and other exporters (15). No SECURITY.md, no security.txt and no bug bounty found. A blog post says Mastra is SOC 2 Type II audited, which isn't scored for a framework, and we found no public advisory from Mastra about the June incident (5). Framework reading. 15+20+15+15+5 = 70 on 6 October, 12+20+15+15+5 = 67 on 6 November.); Microsoft Agent Framework 93 (Framework reading, so SOC 2 isn't scored. A package and version User-Agent goes out on client requests by default, with a feature-usage token on Foundry and Azure OpenAI paths. Both are documented with opt-out variables, and the observability module says the framework contacts no external system itself, with message content in traces off by default (25). `approval_mode` on function and MCP tools, an MCP tool allow-list, and Hyperlight and Monty sandboxes for model-written code in beta. Tools run without approval unless set (20). An Agent Safety page treats model-supplied arguments as untrusted, and FIDES labels content and enforces policy before sensitive tools run, though it is experimental and Python only (15). OpenTelemetry traces, metrics and logs to any exporter (15). SECURITY.md routes reports to MSRC with a bounty programme and coordinated disclosure, CodeQL runs in CI and three advisories were published with fixed versions on 7 October 2026. Microsoft's security.txt still carries an Expires of 23 September 2026 on 1 November. On 1 November the repository's advisories list showed none to our reader, while the GHSA-9f26-7mqc-9vc4 page still loads as published on 7 October, so no advisory after 17 October was found (18).)
- Transparency & trust, Microsoft Agent Framework +13: Mastra 72 (Apache 2.0 for the core, with ee/ directories source-available under the Mastra Enterprise License (25). The privacy policy (last published 25 April 2025) covers the website, the Teams plan states six months' retention, and the subprocessor list sits in a trust centre our reader couldn't render (15). Migration guides and deprecation warnings, without dated removal windows (12). Every telemetry stream is documented with links to its source and one opt-out, and the reference now spells out what the project identifiers can be correlated with (20).); Microsoft Agent Framework 85 (MIT (30). The core README says what the User-Agent and feature token are, and a design spec in the repository says the token goes only to Foundry and Azure OpenAI pipelines and not to third-party providers. That spec is still marked proposed on 1 November, and we found no statement of how long Microsoft keeps the data and no privacy document for the framework (22). Package lifecycle states are published per package, experimental APIs raise warnings, breaking changes are dated in the Python changelog and there are upgrade guides, but we found no written support window (14). Telemetry is disclosed with two opt-out variables (20).)
- Reliability, Mastra +9: Mastra 87 (Official npm packages, Node 22.13 or newer (20). Public CI workflows for unit, store, workspace and e2e tests; on 6 November the newest runs on main (Version Packages, Trigger Cloud Integration Tests) succeeded, while the test workflows themselves run on pull requests (22). 436 open issues and 795 open issues and pull requests on 6 November from GitHub's API, with 2,077 issues opened in the 90 days to 3 November; all 50 newest had a comment and 24 were closed, with issue-triage automation (18). A changesets CHANGELOG per package, a CI gate that needs approval for any major bump and migration guides, but no written versioning policy found, and `.network()` is deprecated without a removal date (12). 1.82.0 (15). 20+22+18+12+15 = 87, up from 74 on 6 October, when GitHub couldn't be read.); Microsoft Agent Framework 78 (Read with the local-software lines. Official packages on PyPI (Requires-Python >=3.10 in the repository, though 1.24.0 makes Python 3.11 the supported baseline and says the next release drops 3.10) and NuGet (net8.0 to net10.0, netstandard2.0, net472) (20). Of the 15 most recent .NET build and test runs on 1 November 2026, 10 passed, 2 were cancelled and 4 wait for approval on a pull request, with none failed, and the scheduled runs on main passed on 31 October and 1 November (25). 610 open issues and 229 open pull requests on 1 November, up from 575 and 201 on 8 October. Closures and bug labels weren't re-counted (10). The Python changelog follows Keep a Changelog and states semantic versioning, and marks breaking changes, but they keep shipping in minor releases of released packages, such as agent-framework-core in 1.22.0 on 15 October and 1.23.0 on 22 October 2026 (8). Python 1.24.0 and .NET 1.27.0, with the root and core packages classed 5 - Production/Stable (15).)
- Agent ergonomics, Mastra +5: Mastra 92 (An MCP client in about ten lines with listTools() for static or listToolsets() for per-request tools, and ToolSearchProcessor for loading tools on demand (25). Step limits, memory windows and processors such as a token limiter control what reaches the model (20). MastraError with ids and categories, and processors can abort with a reason the caller can read (17). Workflow step retries, snapshots and durable agents for resuming (20). create-mastra scaffolds a project and the model router takes a plain string, but it's TypeScript only (10).); Microsoft Agent Framework 87 (The documented Python agent with one MCP server is about 12 lines with `MCPStdioTool` from the core package, and `allowed_tools`, `load_tools` and progressive disclosure limit what reaches the model (25). The function loop stops at 40 iterations by default with a `max_function_calls` option, and compaction has its own docs page (20). A typed exception hierarchy, and the loop stops after three consecutive tool errors by default. We didn't find MCP failures documented (16). Workflows resume from checkpoints and sessions serialise, but we found no retry setting for model calls in the core client (14). An agent needs a client and instructions. Python and .NET are stable, Go is in preview, and the quickstarts assume a Microsoft Foundry project (12).)
- Maintenance & community, Mastra +5: Mastra 96 (@mastra/core 1.82.0 on 2026-11-04 (30). 27 stable releases in the 90 days to 6 November, 8 of them since 6 October (20). 436 open issues on 6 November, all 50 newest issues commented and 24 of them closed (22). Client, MCP and store packages are current, and @mastra/mcp 1.x stays supported beside 2.x (15). Renovate and CI configured, with the newest runs on main passing (9). 30+20+22+15+9 = 96.); Microsoft Agent Framework 91 (Python 1.24.0 and .NET 1.27.0, both tagged on 2026-10-30 (30). 22 release tags in the 90 days to 1 November, 11 Python and 11 .NET (20). 610 open issues and 229 open pull requests on 1 November, and triage, labelling and stale-ping workflows run on new issues. We couldn't see reply times (17). Python and .NET packages are current, and Go is a public preview line with v0.2.1 tagged on 27 October 2026 (15). CI, CodeQL and Dependabot run, though two of four Dependabot update runs failed on 8 October, per the 8 October check, not re-read on 1 November (9).)