head to head · open source
Temporal vs agent-framework
Temporal has 24,173 GitHub stars, 2,072 forks, 956 open issues and last shipped yesterday. agent-framework has 14,527 stars, 2,570 forks, 617 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Temporal leads on adoption by 66% (24,173 vs 14,527 stars). Temporal is written in Go under MIT; agent-framework is written in Python under MIT. Temporal has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, agent-framework 18%. Temporal was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| Temporal | agent-framework | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 24K | ★ 15K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Go | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-11-04 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.1K | ⑂ 2.6K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Temporal if
- You weight community size — 24K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick agent-framework if
- You want the agent-framework feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and agent-framework fits your workflow better
About Temporal
Temporal—durable execution platform Introduction • Getting Started • Contributing • Temporal Docs • Temporal 101 Introduction Temporal is a durable execution platform that enables developers to build scalable applications without sacrificing productivity or reliability. The Temporal server executes units of application logic called Workflows in a resilient manner that automatically handles intermittent failures, and retries failed operations. Temporal is a mature technology that originated as a fork of Uber's Cadence. It is developed by Temporal Technologies, a startup by the creators of…
read the full Temporal overview →
About agent-framework
Welcome to Microsoft Agent Framework! Microsoft Agent Framework (MAF) is an open, multi language framework for building production grade AI agents and multi agent workflows in .NET and Python . Microsoft Agent Framework is built for teams taking agents from prototype to production. It provides a consistent foundation for building, orchestrating, and operating agent systems across Python, .NET and Go, while keeping architecture choices open as requirements evolve, and supports a broad ecosystem including Microsoft Foundry, Azure OpenAI, OpenAI, and the GitHub Copilot SDK, with samples and hosting patterns for…
read the full agent-framework overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Temporal or agent-framework more popular?
Temporal has 24,173 GitHub stars and agent-framework has 14,527. Temporal has the larger community by that measure.
Are Temporal and agent-framework free?
Both are open source. Temporal is licensed under MIT and agent-framework under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Temporal and agent-framework?
Temporal is written in Go and agent-framework in Python. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Temporal or agent-framework?
Choose Temporal if you want the larger community (24,173 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose agent-framework if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.