Best framework to build your own AI agent
You want to ship an agent in your own product or workflow.
OpenAI Agents SDK
Lightweight, MIT-licensed, code-first.
Free tier: Yes. MIT-licensed SDK.
Paid: None for the SDK; model and API usage is billed by your provider.LangChain / LangGraph + LangSmith
LangGraph for stateful agents, LangSmith for tracing and evals.
Free tier: Yes. Developer plan $0 (1 seat, 5k base traces/month, 1 free small serverless deployment).
Paid: Plus $39/seat/mo plus usage. Startup credits up to $10,000 for VC-backed companies.CrewAI
Role-based multi-agent crews in Python.
Free tier: Yes. The open-source framework is free; the platform's Free tier includes 50 workflow executions/month.
Paid: Enterprise tiers; pricing not listed publicly on the page we read.n8n
Visual automations priced per workflow run.
Free tier: Free trial of n8n Cloud (14 days on Business, no card required).
Paid: Cloud (billed annually): Starter €20/mo, Pro €50/mo, Business €667/mo.
FAQ
What is the best framework to build your own ai agent?
Our top pick is OpenAI Agents SDK: Lightweight, MIT-licensed, code-first.
Why consider LangChain / LangGraph + LangSmith?
LangGraph for stateful agents, LangSmith for tracing and evals.
Why consider CrewAI?
Role-based multi-agent crews in Python.
Why consider n8n?
Visual automations priced per workflow run.