CrewAI
Multi-agent framework with role-based collaboration
CrewAI lets you define AI agents with specific roles, goals, and backstories that collaborate on tasks. With 18K+ GitHub stars, it is the easiest way to build multi-agent systems that feel like a real team.
Editor rating is our overall editorial judgment of the tool, out of 5. It is not a test score and not a user-review average. Ratings have not been re-scored since the tool was listed here. The reasons are in Best for and Pros & cons below.
Requires some technical comfort with API keys, command line, or coding. If you're new to AI, start with a chat-based tool first.
Best for
Pros & cons
✓ Pros
✗ What this won't do
Use cases
AI content creation teams
Automated research crews
Customer support agent teams
Code review multi-agent systems
Create a crew project
You need Python 3.10 to 3.13. Install the tool with uv tool install crewai, then run crewai create flow latest-ai-flow and cd latest_ai_flow. Install the project with crewai install.
Add your keys
Create a .env file in the project folder. Add SERPER_API_KEY from serper.dev, plus the key for your model provider.
Run the crew
Run crewai run. It prints "Research crew finished." and a report path, and the finished report waits in output/report.md.
Both keys go in .env
The research crew needs the Serper key and a model provider key before it can run. Check that both are in .env before you try again.
Compare alternatives
| Tool | Category | Editor rating | Pricing |
|---|---|---|---|
| CrewAI (current) | Agent Framework | 4.5 | Free (open-source) / Enterprise pricing |
| LangChain | Agent Framework | 4.6 | Free (open-source) / LangSmith from $39 mo |
| AutoGen | Agent Framework | 4.4 | Free (open-source) |
| Agno | Agent Framework | 4.4 | Free (open-source) |