Google Agent Development Kit vs SmythOS
Google Agent Development Kit
adk.devSmythOS
smythos.comSide by side
| Figure | Google Agent Development Kit | SmythOS |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | $39/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | Yes | Yes |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| iOS | — | Yes |
| Android | — | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 2 | 7 |
| Spec score · AI Agent Platforms | 8.8 (#7) | 8.8 (#8) |
| CLI | Agents CLI can scaffold, build, test, evaluate and deploy ADK agents from an AI-enabled development environment. | The SRE CLI is installed with npm using @smythos/cli and scaffolds new SDK projects with the sre create command. |
| Deployment | Agents can run locally, in containers, on Cloud Run, on GKE or on Google's managed Agent Runtime. | Agents can be deployed through chat, APIs, webhooks, MCP servers, and ChatGPT, or exported to run locally. |
| Integrations | The integrations catalog includes tools and connectors for MCP, Google Cloud, databases, search, observability, and third-party services. | Documented integrations include OpenRouter, Replicate, Stability AI, ElevenLabs, PlayHT, Perplexity, Tavily, Fal.ai, Hugging Face, Google Translate, and OpenAPI. |
| License | The Python ADK repository is licensed under the permissive Apache License 2.0. | The SRE runtime, SDK, and CLI repository is open source under the MIT License. |
| Models | ADK supports Gemini and adapters for other model providers, including locally running models. | SmythOS says it supports models from providers including OpenAI and Anthropic, plus Hugging Face models and customer-provided models. |
| Security | The security guidance covers identity and authorization, input and output guardrails, sandboxed code execution, and network controls. | The security page describes zero-trust access controls, least privilege, fine-grained ACLs, and isolated agent contexts. |
| Self-hosting | The framework can be containerized and operated on infrastructure chosen by the developer without changing agent code. | Community Edition can run locally or on a server with Docker Compose, a MySQL-compatible database, and at least four CPU cores and 8 GB RAM recommended. |
| Support | The site links to community resources and says Google and the ADK team do not support the content in external community resources. | Plan comparisons list community support on free and Builder tiers, personal or priority support on higher tiers, workshops, and optional forward-deployed engineering. |
| What it does | ADK is Google's open-source framework for building, debugging, evaluating and deploying production AI agents and multi-agent systems. | SmythOS is an AI-agent platform for visually building, testing, deploying, and orchestrating agents and workflows. |
Plans
Google Agent Development Kit
- ADK frameworkFree
- Google Agent Development Kit (ADK)Free
SmythOS
- Public FreeFree
- Builder$39 a month
- Startup$399 a month
- Scaleup$1,499 a month
- Enterprise$4,955 a month
- PublicFree
- Private Builder$39 a month
In their own words
Google Agent Development Kit
Google Agent Development Kit (ADK) is an open-source framework for building, debugging, evaluating, and deploying AI agents. It is available in Python, TypeScript, Go, Java, and Kotlin. Graph-based workflows can combine deterministic code with adaptive AI reasoning, and hierarchical agents can delegate work to specialized agents. ADK supports Gemini and adapters for other model providers, including locally running models. Its integrations catalog includes tools and connectors for MCP, Google Cloud, databases, search, observability, and third-party services. Teams can create multi-turn evaluation datasets and run evaluations locally through the CLI or development UI. ADK also supports live agents with bidirectional text and audio streaming, manages session context, and connects to longer-term memory services. Deployment options include Google Cloud Agent Runtime, Cloud Run, GKE, container-friendly infrastructure, and local Docker or Podman environments. Security guidance covers identity, authorization, guardrails, sandboxed code execution, and network controls. ADK is free; model and cloud-service use may require separate access or billing. Agent Config is narrower: it currently supports only Gemini models and requires Python.
SmythOS
SmythOS is an orchestration platform for designing, observing, and deploying AI agents. Its Studio provides a drag-and-drop workspace for agents and workflows, while Agent Weaver can create, troubleshoot, and revise workflows from conversational prompts. Agents can be deployed through chat, APIs, webhooks, MCP servers, and ChatGPT, or exported to run locally. Connections include Slack, Trello, GitHub, and Stripe, alongside OpenAPI and Postman collections. The platform supports models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Hugging Face, and customer-provided sources. Deployment options include local, on-premises, VPC, and SaaS; the maker describes access controls and isolated agent contexts. A free plan is available, and paid plans start at $39 a month. Fast API call allowances vary by plan, from 100 per day on Builder to unlimited on Enterprise. Built-in model use is charged separately according to usage. SmythOS runs on web, Windows, macOS, Linux, API, and self-hosted environments, and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.