Agent Development Kit (ADK) vs LangGraph

Side-by-side comparison of two AI agent tools

Short answer

  • LangGraph is growing faster: +2,365 GitHub stars in the last 30 days vs +80 for Agent Development Kit (ADK).
  • Pick Agent Development Kit (ADK) for: an open-source, code-first Python toolkit for building, evaluating, and deploying sophisticated AI agents. Pick LangGraph for: build resilient language agents as graphs.

From GitHub data refreshed daily.

An open-source, code-first Python toolkit for building, evaluating, and deploying sophisticated AI agents with flexibility and control.

LangGraphopen-source

Build resilient language agents as graphs.

Metrics

Agent Development Kit (ADK)LangGraph
Stars21.7k42.7k
Star velocity /mo802.4k
Commits (90d)1.4k132
Releases (6m)1010
Downloads (30d, npm + PyPI)9.9M43.7M
Overall score0.73815426623124230.8091319530692536

Pros

    • +Durable execution ensures agents automatically resume from exactly where they left off after failures or interruptions
    • +Comprehensive memory system with both short-term working memory for ongoing reasoning and long-term persistent memory across sessions
    • +Seamless human-in-the-loop capabilities allow for inspection and modification of agent state at any point during execution

    Cons

      • -Low-level framework requires more technical expertise and setup compared to high-level agent builders
      • -Graph-based agent design paradigm may have a steeper learning curve for developers new to agent orchestration
      • -Production deployment complexity may be overkill for simple chatbot or single-turn use cases

      Use Cases

        • •Long-running autonomous agents that need to persist through system failures and operate over days or weeks
        • •Complex multi-step workflows requiring human oversight, approval, or intervention at specific decision points
        • •Stateful agents that must maintain context and memory across multiple sessions and interactions

        FAQ

        Which is more popular, Agent Development Kit (ADK) or LangGraph?
        LangGraph has more GitHub stars (42,656 vs 21,696).
        Which is more actively developed, Agent Development Kit (ADK) or LangGraph?
        Agent Development Kit (ADK) had more commits in the last 90 days (1,402 vs 132).
        Should I use Agent Development Kit (ADK) or LangGraph?
        Compare their capabilities, limitations and "best for" notes above. Both are open source, so trying each on a small task is the fastest way to decide.