Google Agent Development Kit (ADK) vs Sauna

A side-by-side look at pricing, capabilities, pros, cons, and our editorial scores.

	Google Agent Development Kit (ADK) Agents	Sauna Agents
Tagline	Google's open-source framework for building, evaluating, and deploying production AI agents	Multiplayer AI agent platform that runs always-on across your team's apps and shared workflows.
Category	Agents	Agents
Pricing	Free· Framework itself is free and open-source (Apache 2.0). Costs come from the underlying model provider (e.g. Gemini API / Vertex AI usage) and any hosting infrastructure (Cloud Run, GKE, Agent Engine).	Freemium· Lite: $29 · Basic: $99 · Pro: $299 · Team: $999
Model	Gemini (default) plus Claude, GPT-4/5, Llama, and other providers via LiteLLM	—
Editorial score	—	6.7 / 10
Use cases	Multi-agent research assistantCustomer support triage agentRAG chatbot backed by Vertex AI SearchCode review and refactoring agentBigQuery natural-language analytics agentDocument processing pipelineVoice/streaming conversational agentInternal tool-use agent orchestrating APIsEvaluation and regression testing of LLM workflowsEnterprise workflow automation on Agent Engine	workflow-automationteam-coordinationcross-app-agentstask-delegationknowledge-retrieval
Pros	Genuinely open-source (Apache 2.0) with active Google engineering behind it, not a hosted-only product Multi-language: first-class Python, Java, and Go SDKs — rare among agent frameworks that are usually Python-only Built-in dev UI (`adk web`) with trace inspection, event stream, and session replay speeds up debugging enormously Model-agnostic via LiteLLM — Gemini is default but Claude, GPT, and local models plug in cleanly Rich multi-agent primitives out of the box: SequentialAgent, ParallelAgent, LoopAgent, and hierarchical sub-agents Tight Google Cloud integration for deployment (Cloud Run, GKE, Agent Engine) plus native BigQuery/Vertex Search tools Evaluation harness with trajectory-level scoring is included, not a separate paid add-on First-class MCP (Model Context Protocol) client and server support	Shared team instance with multiplayer memory and peer-query between colleagues Always-on cloud execution, not a chat session you have to babysit Reaches into 3,000+ apps and accepts custom MCP connectors Multi-surface entry: web, iOS, iMessage, Slack, email
Cons	Documentation and examples lean heavily on Gemini + Google Cloud; non-Google paths work but feel like second-class citizens API surface is still evolving — breaking changes between minor versions have been common through 2025-2026 Multi-agent orchestration primitives are powerful but the graph/callback model has a real learning curve compared to a plain prompt loop Agent Engine deployment is convenient but locks you into GCP billing and quotas TypeScript/Kotlin support lags the Python SDK in features and community examples	Pricing is opaque on the marketing site No public API documentation surfaced from the landing page Underlying model and reliability characteristics aren't disclosed Closed-source, so deep behavioural audits aren't possible
Website	google.github.io	sauna.ai

Pick Google Agent Development Kit (ADK) if

✅ Genuinely open-source (Apache 2.0) with active Google engineering behind it, not a hosted-only product
✅ Multi-language: first-class Python, Java, and Go SDKs — rare among agent frameworks that are usually Python-only
✅ Built-in dev UI (`adk web`) with trace inspection, event stream, and session replay speeds up debugging enormously
✅ Model-agnostic via LiteLLM — Gemini is default but Claude, GPT, and local models plug in cleanly

Pick Sauna if

✅ Shared team instance with multiplayer memory and peer-query between colleagues
✅ Always-on cloud execution, not a chat session you have to babysit
✅ Reaches into 3,000+ apps and accepts custom MCP connectors
✅ Multi-surface entry: web, iOS, iMessage, Slack, email

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