Mastra vs VoltAgent: Features, Pricing

Short answer: Mastra is an Apache 2.0 TypeScript framework with agents, workflows, memory, evals and a hosted platform, for teams that want one batteries-included toolkit. VoltAgent is an MIT TypeScript framework paired with the VoltOps console, for teams that want agent traces and operations beside their code. Both support MCP.

At a glance

Mastra

What it is

An open-source TypeScript framework for agents and workflows, with Studio and a hosted platform (per Mastra).

Best for

TypeScript teams that want agents, workflows, memory and evals in one toolkit.

Visit Mastra

VoltAgent

What it is

An open-source TypeScript framework plus the VoltOps console for observability, evals and deployment (per VoltAgent).

Best for

Teams that want a lightweight MIT framework with traces and operations beside it.

Visit VoltAgent

Mastra vs VoltAgent features

Feature	Mastra	VoltAgent
Approach	Framework for agents and workflows with its own Studio, memory, evals and server; hosted side is Mastra Platform (per Mastra)	Framework plus the VoltOps console for observability, evals, prompts and deployment (per VoltAgent)
License	Apache 2.0 for the core; code under ee/ directories is source-available under the Mastra Enterprise License (see its GitHub repo)	MIT (see its GitHub repo)
GitHub stars and npm downloads	29.2k stars; about 8.5 million monthly npm downloads of @mastra/core	10.9k stars; about 152,000 monthly npm downloads of @voltagent/core
Agents	Agent with a model, instructions and tools; models addressed as provider/model strings	Typed agents; supervisor agents that coordinate sub-agents
Workflows	createStep and createWorkflow chained with .then(); suspend and resume, shared state, step replay in Studio	createWorkflowChain with andThen, andAgent, andWhen, andAll, andRace; suspend and resume with schemas, retries, restart and replay
Memory	Four layers: message history, working memory, semantic recall and observational memory; needs a storage provider	Conversation storage, optional semantic search, working memory and workflow state; adapters for InMemory, VoltOps managed memory, LibSQL, Cloudflare D1, PostgreSQL and Supabase
RAG	Chunking with MDocument, embeddings and vector stores including pgvector, Pinecone, Qdrant and MongoDB	Retrievers you run always-on or as a tool; guides for Chroma, Pinecone, Qdrant and LanceDB; a managed Knowledge Base on VoltOps
Evals	Scorers that run live on agents and workflow steps, on historical traces and in CI; datasets and experiments in Studio	Offline experiments with datasets and scorers through a CLI or script, plus live scoring on traces; VoltOps is optional for offline runs
Tools	createTool with inputSchema and execute	Zod-typed tools with lifecycle hooks and cancellation
MCP	Both MCPClient and MCPServer, over stdio and Streamable HTTP	MCP client over http, streamable-http, SSE and stdio, plus an MCPServer package to expose your project
Observability	Traces, logs and metrics in Studio; exporters for Mastra Platform, Langfuse, Datadog and Arize	VoltOps console with waterfall and node views, logs, feedback, cost tracking, alerts and user analytics
Deployment	Hono-based server from mastra build; deployers for Vercel, Netlify and Cloudflare; embeds in Next.js; Mastra Platform	Node server with npm run build; guides for Cloudflare Workers and Netlify Functions; VoltOps Deploy with GitHub builds; local tunnel for sharing
Quickstart	npm create mastra@latest scaffolds an agent harness and installs skills for your coding agent; Studio opens against the project	npm create voltagent-app@latest asks for a project name, provider and API key; runs on Node.js 20.19 or newer
Community and support	Discord; shared Slack channel, SLA support and a dedicated support engineer on Enterprise	Discord, plus X, Reddit, LinkedIn and YouTube; priority support on Pro; dedicated account manager and Slack priority support on Enterprise

Features from Mastra docs, VoltAgent docs, Mastra on GitHub and VoltAgent on GitHub. Star counts are from GitHub and download counts from npm.

Mastra vs VoltAgent pricing

Both frameworks are free and open source. What you might pay for is the hosted side. Mastra Platform meters observability events, CPU time and storage. VoltOps charges by seat and by traces a month, with prompts, evals and RAG limits per plan.

Plan	Mastra	VoltAgent
Free framework	Open source, $0. Agents, workflows and memory under Apache 2.0, hosted anywhere.	Open source, $0. The MIT framework runs on your own infrastructure.
Free hosted	Starter, $0. 100K observability events, 24 CPU hours, unlimited users and deployments, 15 days of data retention.	Developer, $0. 1 seat, 1 prompt and 1 project, 250 traces a month, 7 days of retention, no credit card.
Paid	Teams, $250 a month. 1M observability events then $8 per 100K, 250 CPU hours then $0.25 an hour, multiple teams, SSO, 6 months of retention. Starter overage is $10 per 100K events and $0.35 an hour.	Core, $50 a month (14-day free trial): 3 seats, unlimited prompts and agents, 50,000 traces, 90 days of retention. Pro, $250 a month (14-day free trial): 20 seats, 250,000 traces, SSO, priority support. Extra traces cost $10 per 5,000.
Enterprise	Custom. RBAC, audit logs, support and uptime SLAs, a dedicated support engineer, or a self-hosted license at one flat annual fee.	Custom. Unlimited seats and traces, self-hosted deployment, dedicated account manager, Slack priority support, custom MSA.

Prices from mastra.ai/pricing and voltagent.dev/pricing. Mastra's page lists the hosted side as Mastra Platform; VoltAgent's lists VoltOps.

What it's like to use Mastra and VoltAgent

Both get you from an empty folder to a working TypeScript agent quickly, and both treat observability as part of the job. The difference is the center of gravity. Mastra puts the framework first and adds Studio around it. VoltAgent puts the console in the loop from the first run.

Mastra

Mastra is the one that feels like a framework with a plan. You run npm create mastra@latest, get an agent harness with memory and a local workspace, and open Studio against it. The manual route is just as short: define a tool with createTool, give an Agent a provider/model string, and register both on a Mastra instance. What stood out to me is how much sits behind that one install: scorers, datasets, memory and a server. The trade is that you work the way it expects.

What I liked

• One package covers agents, workflows, memory, evals and MCP in both directions.
• Studio runs on localhost and brings traces, scorers, datasets and experiments into one place.
• Memory has four layers, including observational memory that compresses old messages.
• Deploys as a Hono server, to Vercel, Netlify or Cloudflare, or inside a Next.js app.
• The core is Apache 2.0 and the hosted platform is optional.

What I didn't

• It is opinionated, and designs that fall outside its patterns take more work.
• Branching, rules-based flows feel clunky to express in workflows.
• Memory does not work until you configure a storage provider.
• Code under the ee/ directories is source-available, not Apache 2.0.

Best for: TypeScript teams that want a batteries-included framework with Studio, evals and memory in one place.

VoltAgent

VoltAgent starts from visibility. You run npm create voltagent-app@latest, answer a few prompts, and npm run dev starts a server on port 3141 with Swagger UI and a pointer to the VoltOps console. The starter includes an expense-approval workflow that auto-approves under $500 and suspends above it, which is a clear picture of how suspend and resume works. You'll notice the console does a lot of the explaining: you chat with the agent there and read the trace afterwards.

What I liked

• The VoltOps console shows each run as a visual trace, with tool inputs and outputs.
• The whole framework is MIT licensed.
• Chain-style workflows with andAgent, andWhen, andAll and andRace, plus suspend and resume.
• Supervisor and sub-agent teams are part of the core runtime.
• Memory adapters range from LibSQL to PostgreSQL, Supabase and Cloudflare D1.

What I didn't

• The community is smaller, with fewer stars and far fewer downloads than Mastra.
• The free Developer plan allows 250 traces a month and 7 days of retention, which suits a trial, not a live app.
• Type inference can get complex enough to need a @ts-ignore.
• Managed memory, the Knowledge Base and VoltOps Deploy tie parts of the stack to the hosted console.
• Docs are split across separate sites for evals, observability and deployment.

Best for: teams that want an MIT framework with a console that shows what the agent did, run by run.

Which to choose

If you want the broadest set of built-in primitives, a larger community and a local Studio for traces and evals, Mastra fits. If you want an MIT framework with chain-style workflows and a hosted or self-hosted console for traces, VoltAgent fits. Both frameworks are free, so build the same small agent in each before you decide on any hosted plan.

Where viaSocket fits

viaSocket is not a framework and not part of this comparison. Frameworks like these run the agent; the app connections it calls still have to come from somewhere. viaSocket is an integration layer with 2,300+ apps where, per viaSocket, every action has an input schema so an agent can call it as a tool. Its free plan lists 100K tasks a month.

FAQ

Sources

• Mastra pricing, homepage, docs, quickstart, Studio, GitHub, GitHub issues
• VoltAgent pricing, homepage, docs, quickstart, observability docs, GitHub, GitHub issues

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