Dapr AgentsvsMastra
Generated from the two spec rows. Green marks the better value where a spec has a clear direction. Everything else is just different.
Dapr Agents
Dapr · Agent framework
OSSMCP
Panel
7.00 spec wins
- Reliability
- 7.2
- Usefulness
- 6.2
- Cost
- 7.0
- Longevity
- 7.5
“It reaches more than fifty enterprise data sources, which is fifty new ways to be told your credentials expired.”
Mastra
Mastra · Agent framework
OSSMCP
Panel
6.87 spec wins
- Reliability
- 6.7
- Usefulness
- 6.8
- Cost
- 6.5
- Longevity
- 7.0
“Publishes two books on building agents and a weekly podcast, so the documentation now has documentation.”
Spec by spec
| Spec | Dapr Agents | Mastra |
|---|---|---|
| Architecture | ||
| Category | Agent framework | Agent framework |
| Runs | local, cloud | local, cloud |
| Platforms | macos, linux, windows | macos, linux, windows |
| Context window | not documented | not documented |
| Protocols | ||
| MCP client | Yes | Yes |
| MCP server | No | Yes |
| Capabilities | ||
| Runs terminal commands | No | Yes |
| Multi-file edits | No | No |
| Git operations | No | No |
| Browser control | No | Yes |
| Sandboxed execution | No | Yes |
| Multi-agent orchestration | Yes | Yes |
| Headless / CI mode | No | Yes |
| Models | ||
| Backbone | OpenAI, Anthropic | OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini, xAI, 40+ providers |
| Bring your own model | Yes | Yes |
| Local models | No | Yes |
| Cost | ||
| Pricing model | byok | byok |
| Starts at | $0/mo | $0/mo |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Bring your own key | Yes | Yes |
| Openness | ||
| Open source | Yes | Yes |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 (core) / Mastra Enterprise License (ee directories) |
| GitHub stars | 753 | 28,490 |
Which one would each critic pick
| Critic | Dapr Agents | Mastra | Pick |
|---|---|---|---|
| El Juez | — | — | not enough reviews |
| El Amigo | 6.8 | 7.3 | Mastra — Pick Mastra if your team writes TypeScript and already has a Next.js app to put the agent in; pick LangGraph if it writes Python or needs a graph you can inspect. |
| El Crítico | 6.3 | 6.5 | Mastra — The auth code sits in an ee directory under the Mastra Enterprise License, free for development and testing but licensed for production, so a real deployment's first need is the part that is not open. |
| El Profesor | 7.5 | 6.8 | Dapr Agents — Agent runs are expressed as durable workflows, which imposes a replay discipline: the orchestration must be deterministic and every model call has to sit behind an activity boundary. |
| La Inversora | 7.0 | 7.0 | no preference |
| La Jefa | 7.0 | 6.5 | Dapr Agents — Nothing per seat, and the operational surface is one my platform team already watches: the same sidecars, the same components, the same dashboards as every other service. |
| El Hacker | 7.3 | 6.5 | Dapr Agents — Apache-2.0, one pip install, and tools arrive over MCP rather than as a hardcoded registry, so servers I already run become capabilities without a wrapper. |
Picks are derived from each critic's own scores. Humans vote on matchups on the duels page.