Manus review (2026): pricing, best for, alternatives
Summary
Manus is #4 of 5 in our Agent Builders & Automation ranking (initial editorial, pending tests). General-purpose autonomous agent that does research, slides, sites and wide research end to end.[manus.im] Pricing as stated on help.manus.im (checked 2026-10-26) starts with: Free $0 (300 credits/day); Pro from $20/mo (4,000 credits); more tiers below.[pricing page] Our public-docs Agent-Ready review scores it 5/10 (Partial): documented API, machine-friendly docs and documented auth & limits.[evidence table]
Best for
- Agent Builders & Automation: ranked #4 of 5
- Trying before paying: a free option is stated on the pricing page
Not ideal for
- MCP-first agent stacks: no MCP server documented
- Wanting the top-ranked Agent Builders & Automation pick: that is currently n8n
Derived from the sourced pricing, Agent-Ready evidence and head-to-head verdicts on this page; not a hands-on quality test.
Manus pricing (as stated on vendor site)
| Plan | Price / terms as stated |
|---|---|
| Free | $0 (300 credits/day) |
| Pro | from $20/mo (4,000 credits) |
| Pro (higher) | from $40/mo (8,000 credits, 7-day trial) |
| Team | from $20/seat/mo |
| Annual | 17% off |
Agent-Ready breakdown: 5/10 (Partial)
| Signal | Points | What we found | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| API | 3/3 | Manus API v2 (OpenAPI) with API keys | open.manus.ai |
| MCP server | 0/2 | MCP client/connectors only; no Manus MCP server found | manus.im |
| CLI / headless | 0/2 | No official CLI found | open.manus.ai |
| SDK | 0/1 | OpenAI-SDK compatibility only; no Manus SDK | open.manus.ai |
| Machine-friendly docs | 1/1 | llms.txt plus OpenAPI | open.manus.ai |
| Agent-friendly auth & limits | 1/1 | Per-user rate limits and usage/credits endpoints | open.manus.im |
Public-docs review on 2026-10-19; no account was used and no API calls were made. Rubric · Leaderboard
Manus alternatives
| Tool | Rank | Agent-Ready | Why | Compare |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| n8n | #1 | 9/10 | Visual workflow plus AI-agent builder with MCP and AI nodes and a self-host option. A builder favorite. | side by side in ranking |
| Zapier | #2 | 10/10 | The largest app-integration catalog, with Copilot, Agents, Tables and Forms on top. | side by side in ranking |
| Make | #3 | 10/10 | Visual scenario builder that offers more control per dollar than Zapier for complex flows. | side by side in ranking |
| CrewAI | #5 | 8/10 | Popular multi-agent ('crew') framework with a hosted visual studio. | side by side in ranking |
Ranks across use cases
| Use case | Rank | Score | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agent Builders & Automation | #4 | TBD | Initial editorial, pending tests |
Test results
Loadout Score: TBD. No quality test on the published task set has been run yet. Rank history: unchanged since the 2026-10-19 seed (movers).
Notable releases
TBD
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