Microsoft Agent FrameworkvsOpenAI Agents SDK
Generated from the two spec rows. Green marks the better value where a spec has a clear direction. Everything else is just different.
Microsoft Agent Framework
Microsoft · Agent framework
OSS
Panel
7.10 spec wins
- Reliability
- 7.0
- Usefulness
- 6.7
- Cost
- 7.2
- Longevity
- 7.7
“Its workflow engine advertises time travel, which is a confident name for being able to load an old checkpoint.”
OpenAI Agents SDK
OpenAI · Agent framework
OSSMCP
Panel
7.16 spec wins
- Reliability
- 7.2
- Usefulness
- 7.0
- Cost
- 7.2
- Longevity
- 7.0
“Billed as the production-ready upgrade of Swarm, which tells you what Swarm was.”
Spec by spec
| Spec | Microsoft Agent Framework | OpenAI Agents SDK |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | No | Yes |
| MCP server | No | No |
| Capabilities | ||
| Runs terminal commands | No | Yes |
| Multi-file edits | No | Yes |
| Git operations | No | No |
| Browser control | No | Yes |
| Sandboxed execution | No | No |
| Multi-agent orchestration | Yes | Yes |
| Headless / CI mode | Yes | Yes |
| Models | ||
| Backbone | any | GPT, any LiteLLM-supported model |
| Bring your own model | Yes | Yes |
| Local models | No | Yes |
| Cost | ||
| Pricing model | byok | byok |
| Starts at | n/a | $0/mo |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Bring your own key | Yes | Yes |
| Openness | ||
| Open source | Yes | Yes |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| GitHub stars | 13,904 | 29,799 |
Which one would each critic pick
| Critic | Microsoft Agent Framework | OpenAI Agents SDK | Pick |
|---|---|---|---|
| El Juez | — | — | not enough reviews |
| El Amigo | 7.3 | 7.0 | Microsoft Agent Framework — Pick Microsoft Agent Framework if the company runs on .NET and Azure; pick LangGraph if you are Python-only and would rather not acquire a cloud with your framework. |
| El Crítico | 6.5 | 6.8 | OpenAI Agents SDK — The escape hatch is LiteLLM but the hosted tools do not follow you through it: web search, file search, code interpreter, computer use, shell and apply-patch only exist on OpenAI's side. |
| El Profesor | 7.3 | 6.5 | Microsoft Agent Framework — Workflows are graphs with checkpointing and a time-travel facility, so a run can be replayed from a stored earlier state rather than restarted from the beginning. |
| La Inversora | 7.5 | 7.5 | no preference |
| La Jefa | 7.8 | 7.3 | Microsoft Agent Framework — One framework covering both our .NET and Python teams means one training investment instead of two, and the vendor is already on a contract legal has signed. |
| El Hacker | 6.5 | 7.5 | OpenAI Agents SDK — MIT, pip install openai-agents, MCPServerStreamableHttp from agents.mcp, and LiteLLM means my local Ollama box counts as a provider; I can read the whole loop and fork it. |
Picks are derived from each critic's own scores. Humans vote on matchups on the duels page.