My Cloud Company vs AutoGen
Microsoft’s open-source multi-agent conversation framework. Free to use, though Microsoft has moved active development to the Microsoft Agent Framework. Here is an honest comparison — including where AutoGen is the better choice.
My Cloud Company is our own product, so treat this as a vendor comparison and read it with that in mind. Everything stated about AutoGen is taken from their public documentation and pricing page, linked below, and checked in August 2026. Where they are the better choice we say so plainly — a comparison that pretends otherwise is not worth your time.
The short version
AutoGen is developer framework for researchers and developers experimenting with conversational multi-agent systems. My Cloud Company is a managed service: we design the agent team for your industry, connect it to the accounts you already use, set hard spending caps, and supervise what it produces. You approve the work and read one report a week.
The real question is not which software is better. It is whether you want to operate an agent system or receive the output of one.
Side by side
| My Cloud Company | AutoGen | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Managed AI team, delivered as a service | Developer framework |
| Who operates it | We do | You do |
| Setup | 20-minute call, running in 7 days | Yours to build and maintain |
| Technical skill needed | None | Engineering |
| AI model costs | Included and capped per agent, or bring your own key for less | Your own API keys, billed separately |
| Approval before anything ships | Built in | Build it yourself |
| Spend ceiling per agent | Hard stop, automatic | Build it yourself |
| Accountable human | Us | You |
| Price | $499 / $899 / $1,499 per month + $750 one-time build | See pricing note below |
Comparison reflects public information as of August 2026. Verify current details on AutoGen’s own site.
What AutoGen does well
Genuinely — these are real strengths, and if they match what you need you should choose AutoGen over us.
- No licence cost at all
- Excellent for research and for understanding how agent conversation works
- Microsoft backing and Azure integration
- Mature body of published examples
What you take on with it
None of these are flaws in the product. They are consequences of the model: AutoGen is something you run, so the operating burden is yours.
- Microsoft has shifted active development toward the Microsoft Agent Framework, which matters when you are choosing something to run for years
- Conversation-first design can burn tokens quickly without careful termination conditions
- No hosting, scheduling, budgets or supervision included
- Assumes a developer is present, permanently
Pricing compared
AutoGen
Free and open source — there is no framework licence fee. You pay only for model API calls, which on Azure are billed per token.
My Cloud Company
Three published plans — Launch $499/month (one department automated), Growth $899/month (up to three departments) and Scale $1,499/month (up to five) — plus a one-time $750 build. Extra agents are $100 a month each. Enterprise is quoted after a call.
The number that usually decides it is the one people forget: model spend. With a framework or a platform you supply your own API keys and the meter runs uncapped. With us the AI running costs are inside the price and every agent has a hard monthly ceiling, so the invoice does not move when a workflow gets chatty.
Which should you choose?
If you want to own it
Pick AutoGen if you are researching multi-agent behaviour, or you are already deep in the Azure ecosystem with engineers to match.
If you want the outcome
Pick us if you want something running your operations next week and have no intention of maintaining a framework.
The pattern behind most switches
The people who come to us have usually already tried a tool like AutoGen. Not because it was bad — because it handed them a second job. They signed up, met a blank canvas, spent an hour, and never came back. The failure was never model quality. It was that every product in this category assumes the buyer wants to be the operator.
We sell the opposite thing. A manager agent that plans and delegates, departments that each own one outcome, agents with trained skills and a schedule, connected to your accounts and supervised by us. You approve what matters. The output is the product — not the software.
Common questions
Is My Cloud Company a replacement for AutoGen?
Not exactly — they solve the problem at different layers. AutoGen is developer framework that you operate. My Cloud Company is a managed service: we build the agent team, connect it to your accounts, cap the spending and supervise the output, and you approve what ships. If you want to own the implementation, AutoGen is the better answer.
How does pricing compare?
AutoGen: Free and open source — there is no framework licence fee. You pay only for model API calls, which on Azure are billed per token. My Cloud Company is $499, $899 or $1,499 a month depending on how many departments you automate, plus a one-time $750 build. AI model costs are included in our price and capped per agent, so there is no separate token bill. Pricing checked August 2026.
Do I need a developer?
For AutoGen, yes — it is a framework and assumes engineering time. With My Cloud Company you never touch a terminal, a prompt or an API key. Setup happens on a twenty-minute call and we do the build.
What happens if the AI gets something wrong?
Anything that would leave your business waits in an approval queue until you sign it off, every action is logged and traceable, and every agent has a hard monthly spending cap. With AutoGen those guardrails are yours to build unless you add them.
Other comparisons
- My Cloud Company vs CrewAI — developer framework
- My Cloud Company vs LangGraph — developer framework
- My Cloud Company vs Lindy — agent platform
- My Cloud Company vs Relevance AI — agent platform
- All AI agent platform alternatives, compared
Every company we build starts with a twenty-minute call — you describe the work that keeps slipping, and we tell you honestly whether we can take it off your plate, or whether AutoGen is the better fit for you. Book the call, or read what each plan includes.