// side by side · same rules, same day
CrewAI vs LangGraph
CrewAI 5/5 · LangGraph 2/5
| CrewAICrewAI AGENT | LangGraphLangChain WRAPPER WITH AMBITION | |
|---|---|---|
| CAPABILITYyes / no / uncertain | 5/5 AGENT | 2/5 WRAPPER WITH AMBITION |
| PROOFhow well you can check us | OPERATOR INSPECTABLE | OPERATOR INSPECTABLE |
| TRACE ACCESSwho can read the record | OPERATOR-OWNED | OPERATOR-OWNED |
| LEASHtool calls between human turns | ||
| CHECKEDversion and date | CrewAI 0.x crews and flows (docs.crewai.com, 2026) | LangGraph OSS Python (docs.langchain.com, Aug 2026) |
| CONFIDENCEours, in this dossier | 7/10 | 7/10 |
| COMMUNITYwhat visitors ruled | A0 · W0 · C0 | A0 · W0 · C0 |
| IN COURTopen challenges | ||
| DISPUTEDwhere the axes disagree |
02
Question by question
rows marked "they differ" are where the comparison earns its keep| CrewAICrewAI AGENT | LangGraphLangChain WRAPPER WITH AMBITION | |
|---|---|---|
| LOOPSruns until donethey differ | ✓ yes OPERATOR INSPECTABLE Out of the box each CrewAI agent runs a framework-provided (not developer-authored) reasoning/tool loop that varies steps with the task until done; max_iter (default 20) is a ceiling, which the rule says does not disqualify. | ✗ no OPERATOR INSPECTABLE Framework rule: score default out-of-box behavior. LangGraph executes the developer-wired graph; cycles are edges the developer authors and recursion_limit is only a cap. The loop is a provided primitive, not the framework deciding step count. |
| CHOOSESpicks its own tools | ✓ yes OPERATOR INSPECTABLE Agents pick tools at runtime; the hierarchical process has a manager LLM allocate tasks to agents. | ✓ yes OPERATOR INSPECTABLE Prebuilt create_react_agent/create_agent loops on tool_calls in the model's reply, so the model picks which tool and in what order at runtime; the developer supplies only the tool list. |
| ACTSchanges the worldthey differ | ✓ yes OPERATOR INSPECTABLE CrewAI ships first-party FileWriterTool (writes/overwrites files on disk, creates dirs) and code-execution tooling that runs agent Python in Docker — the framework itself executes these state-changing tools, satisfying ACTS ("writes a file, runs a command"). | ✗ no OPERATOR INSPECTABLE langgraph.prebuilt ships only scaffolding (ToolNode, create_react_agent, ValidationNode) and zero concrete tools, so every file write, HTTP call or command lives in developer-authored nodes. |
| RECOVERSfixes its own errorsthey differ | ✓ yes OPERATOR INSPECTABLE Docs: failed guardrail sends the error back so "the agent attempts to fix the issue" (max 3), and on a code exception the agent "can attempt to correct the code or provide alternative solutions" — different action, no human. | ✗ no OPERATOR INSPECTABLE Fault-tolerance docs: retry_policy is opt-in per add_node and re-runs the IDENTICAL failed node; ToolNode's default only echoes bad-arg errors back, alternate routing is developer-authored. |
| UNSUPERVISEDnobody watching | ✓ yes OPERATOR INSPECTABLE Live docs confirm crew.kickoff() runs all tasks to completion with human_input defaulting to False — a documented default mode that completes a full task with no per-step approval. That is what the framework does out of the box. | ✓ yes OPERATOR INSPECTABLE No default approval gate: HITL is opt-in middleware the developer adds to the agent's middleware list, and a compiled graph invoked without interrupt() runs to END unattended. |
Every answer here is the same one on the dossier and in the dataset — this page holds no numbers of its own. Think one is wrong? Bring a trace.