markitdown vs deer-flow

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title: "markitdown vs deer-flow: Which is Better in 2025?"

date: "2026-05-19"

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Overview

markitdown and deer-flow are both popular development tools. Convert various file formats to Markdown effortlessly with this Python tool. Open-source framework for building long-horizon super agents that research, code, and create.

Feature Comparison

| Feature | markitdown | deer-flow |

|---------|------------|-----------|

| Rating | 5/5 | 4.75/5 |

| Open Source | Yes | Yes |

| GitHub Stars | N/A | N/A |

| Converts PDF, Office documents, and other files to Markdown | ✅ | ❌ |

| Integrates with LangChain, OpenAI, and AutoGen | ✅ | ❌ |

| MIT licensed and actively maintained by Microsoft | ✅ | ❌ |

| High performance with significant community adoption | ✅ | ❌ |

| Long-horizon task handling from minutes to hours | ❌ | ✅ |

| Sandboxed execution environments for safety | ❌ | ✅ |

| Memory, tools, skills, and subagent orchestration | ❌ | ✅ |

| Message gateway for inter-agent communication | ❌ | ✅ |

| Built on LangChain and LangGraph for extensibility | ❌ | ✅ |

Pricing

markitdown

**Free**: $0 — Open source under MIT license, All features available

deer-flow

**Free**: $0 — Full open-source code under MIT license, Self-hosted deployment, Community support

When to Choose markitdown

Consider markitdown if you need Converts PDF, Office documents, and other files to Markdown, Integrates with LangChain, OpenAI, and AutoGen, MIT licensed and actively maintained by Microsoft.

When to Choose deer-flow

Consider deer-flow if you need Long-horizon task handling from minutes to hours, Sandboxed execution environments for safety, Memory, tools, skills, and subagent orchestration.

Verdict

Both tools are solid choices in the development space. markitdown has a 5/5 rating while deer-flow has a 4.75/5 rating.