LlamaIndex vs Mastra

Two fact sheets from our own research, side by side — pricing, platforms, API access and status re-checked by us rather than quoted from the vendors.

The short answer

Free plan: Both have one
Public API: Both have one
Best fit: LlamaIndex: Developers building retrieval-augmented answers over PDFs, contracts and reports with tables and scans · Mastra: TypeScript and JavaScript teams building agents who want to stay in one language end-to-end
Platforms: LlamaIndex: Web, Linux · Mastra: Web
Trust score: About even — LlamaIndex 87, Mastra 84

From our own records as of each tool's last check. Anything we have not confirmed is left out rather than guessed. How we verify

LlamaIndexOpen-source data framework for retrieval and agents, with LlamaParse as the paid document parsing, extraction and indexing service

MastraOpen-source TypeScript framework for building, running, and observing AI agents in production.

Side by side

Fact	LlamaIndex	Mastra
Category	Agent Frameworks & Orchestration	LLM Orchestration Frameworks
Pricing model	Freemium	Freemium
Starts at	$50/mo	—
Public API	Yes	Yes
Trust score	87 / 100	84 / 100
Platforms	API, Web, Linux	Web, API
Company	LlamaIndex, Inc.	Mastra
Launched	2023	2024
Last verified	Sep 6, 2026	Sep 1, 2026

What our research says

LlamaIndex

LlamaIndex is the pragmatic choice for a developer who wants retrieval over messy documents working this week: the open-source framework handles ingestion and querying, and LlamaParse does the hard part — tables, scans and layouts — as a paid API with a free tier large enough to prototype on. Teams that only need to chain model calls will find LangChain's ecosystem broader, and anyone parsing millions of pages should model the credit cost before committing, because agentic parsing multiplies the per-page rate.

Pros

Open-source framework with commercial-friendly licensing and connectors for most file and data sources
LlamaParse handles tables, multi-column layouts and scanned pages that plain text extractors mangle
Free tier of 10,000 credits a month and a $50 Starter plan make the cost curve gentle at the start
Enterprise options include private VPC and hybrid deployment, SSO and custom BAAs

Cons

Credit pricing is opaque until you test: basic pages cost one credit, agentic and VLM parsing cost several times more
The free tier allows file upload only, so connectors and external sources need a paid plan
Rapid API and library changes mean tutorials and integrations go stale quickly
Index limits (5 indexes, 50 files each on Free) are tight for anything beyond a demo

Mastra

Mastra brings the same team that scaled Gatsby to millions in revenue into the agent-framework space, and the open-source core with a large provider list is a credible starting point for TypeScript teams. It competes directly with more established orchestration frameworks, so the deciding factor is usually which one already fits a team's existing stack.

Pros

Apache 2.0 open-source core with a large, active GitHub following
Built-in workflow, memory, and observability primitives rather than requiring separate tools
Backed by experienced founders and well funded, reducing near-term abandonment risk

Cons

TypeScript-only, so it does not serve Python-first agent teams
Enterprise licensing terms and pricing are not published publicly
Being newer than incumbents like LangChain means a smaller base of production war stories

Which one fits

Choose LlamaIndex if you need

Developers building retrieval-augmented answers over PDFs, contracts and reports with tables and scans
Teams that want extraction of structured fields from documents without training their own layout models
Startups prototyping on the free tier and growing into metered usage rather than a seat licence

Choose Mastra if you need

TypeScript and JavaScript teams building agents who want to stay in one language end-to-end
Developers who want built-in memory and observability rather than assembling them separately