CrewAI vs Lyzr (2026): which should you pick?

Pick CrewAI if

• Fits if you want to try multi-agent workflows in a visual editor
• Works for a company that wants a VPC or self-run deployment

Look elsewhere if

• Tight if you build for real: 2 automations and 50 executions a month
• Not for you if you want a self-serve paid plan, as none is published
• Watch out: SSO, role-based access and enterprise connectors are Enterprise only
• Skip it if you want instant sign-up for Enterprise, which starts with a trial request and a 45-day onboarding

Pick Lyzr if

• Fits if you want to build and test agents free before talking to sales
• Makes sense if your company needs one place to track and govern its agents

Look elsewhere if

• Pricey if you want help, as the proof of concept is $20,000 for 4 weeks
• Not for you if you want published team pricing, since governance and workflow plans are custom
• Watch out: credits are added as a team grows, and prices are billed yearly in US dollars
• Watch out: fine-tuning and on-prem hardware are extras priced with you

CrewAI

• The pricing page lists only Free and Enterprise; there is no published self-serve paid tier.
• The free plan stops at 2 automations and 50 executions a month, with no overage option.
• SSO, role-based access, enterprise connectors and dedicated support are Enterprise only.
• Enterprise starts with a trial request and a 45-day onboarding, not instant sign-up.

Lyzr

• Only the Build plan has a published price; governance and workflow plans are custom and sold through sales.
• The pricing page lists a fixed-scope proof of concept at $20,000 for 4 weeks, after a free 72-hour test drive.
• The pricing page notes prices are in US dollars, billed yearly, and that credits are added as a team grows.
• Fine-tuning and on-prem hardware are add-ons priced with you.

CrewAI

Visual editor and AI copilot

A no-code canvas builder, guided by an AI copilot, that can be exported to Python code.

Role-based agents and workflows

Agents are given roles, and deterministic workflows control how they hand work to each other.

Tracing and evaluation

Tracing of every LLM call, tool call and memory read with cost accounting, plus OpenTelemetry and LLM testing.

Governance controls

Human-in-the-loop approval gates, guardrails, and on Enterprise, SSO, role-based access and PII redaction hooks.

Flexible deployment

Run on CrewAI cloud; Enterprise adds a dedicated VPC or the customer's own infrastructure. Agents can be exported as an MCP server.

Lyzr

Agent Studio and Architect

Build agents visually or turn a plain-language brief into a working agent, test against a sandbox, and move them to production without rebuilding.

Opencontroller governance

A control plane that lists every agent, gives each an owner and release gate, and applies policies and spend limits, including to agents built on other platforms.

Workflow automation service

For complex processes, Lyzr's engineers build multi-agent workflows with your team, hosted by Lyzr, in your cloud or on-prem.

Model choice

You use the model provider you already pay for or open-weight models on your own hardware; Lyzr states it does not bill for tokens.

Fine-tuning and on-prem hardware

Openfinetuner trains open-weight models on your data, and Lyzr Optimus is an on-prem appliance that can run air-gapped; both are priced individually.

CrewAI

• Basic$0

  Visual editor, AI copilot, tracing and GitHub integration; 2 automations and a hard cap of 50 executions a month.

• EnterpriseCustom

  SSO, RBAC, PII redaction, enterprise connectors, dedicated support, and deployment on CrewAI cloud, a VPC or your own servers.

Lyzr

• Build$0

  Free to build, test and tune agents; add credits only as your team grows.

• Govern every agentCustom

  Yearly plan for the Opencontroller control plane: agent inventory, identity, release gates and guardrails.

• Automate workflowsCustom

  Multi-agent workflows with forward-deployed engineers, starting from a free test drive.