Manus vs Devin vs Genspark: Which Agent Fits?

Manus, Devin and Genspark all carry the label "AI agent", but they are built for different work. Manus delegates broad, multi-step tasks and returns an artifact. Devin takes software-engineering work inside a repository and returns a pull request. Genspark organises research and production inside a workspace of slides, sheets and documents.

That difference decides more than any benchmark score, so this guide does not crown a winner. It maps each agent to the work it finishes, shows where the output lands, and records current pricing with the date it was checked. The comparison uses each vendor's own documentation and pricing pages, verified on 13 October 2026, plus independent reporting where it exists. We have not run the agents against a shared benchmark, and this article does not claim hands-on testing. Vendor claims are labelled as such.

Three products, three jobs

Sort the field by what you actually receive at the end of a run.

• General-purpose task execution plans a goal, works a browser and files, and delivers an artifact such as a report, a dataset or a simple site. Manus works this way.
• Software engineering works inside a repository: reading code, editing files, running tests and opening a pull request. Devin is built for this.
• Research and workspace production turns a question into cited material and then into slides, sheets, documents or a site. Genspark is built around this loop.

None of the three is a strict superset of the others, so adopting one does not make the other two redundant.

Manus: delegated, multi-step work

Manus AI is a general-purpose agent. You describe a goal, and it plans the steps, browses the web, works with files and runs code before returning a deliverable. Its documented strengths are research-heavy: in-depth research, Wide Research for splitting one request across parallel subtasks, scheduled tasks and simple website building.

Where it fits. Knowledge work where the value is the artifact rather than the chat: market scans, source-grounded briefs, collated datasets, a first-pass deck.

What it still needs from you. A precise brief and a review step. Usage is metered in credits, so a vague request can cost more than expected, and long browser-driven runs can report completion on partial work.

Pricing. A free tier with refresh credits, plus paid plans sold by monthly credit volume. Current figures are in the pricing table below.

Devin: software-engineering work

Devin AI is Cognition's autonomous software engineer. It works in its own cloud environment, not your editor: it takes an issue, explores the codebase, writes the changes, runs tests and opens a pull request. That last step is the point, because the pull request is a diff your existing process already reviews before it merges.

Where it fits. Teams that hand over whole, well-specified engineering tasks, such as bug fixes, migrations, small features or a first-pass review.

What it still needs from you. Repository access and a working review process. Devin assumes you judge a finished change; it is not a pair-programming assistant beside you in the editor.

Pricing. In April 2026 Cognition replaced its older Core and high-priced Team plans with a self-serve lineup, and moved several previously free tools (Ask Devin, DeepWiki, Devin Review) onto metered billing. The free tier is real but limited.

Genspark: research and a production workspace

Genspark grew out of AI search and now presents itself as an AI workspace. Its Super Agent runs multi-step research and hands results into dedicated tools: AI Slides, AI Sheets, AI Docs, an app builder and media generation, all sharing one storage area.

Where it fits. Going from a research question straight to a usable output, especially when the output must stay editable, such as a deck, a spreadsheet or a document.

What it still needs from you. Source checks. Independent reviews have questioned how well some citations hold up on statistical questions, so treat citations as a starting point rather than proof.

Pricing. Credit-based, with two paid individual tiers and a larger top tier. A single complex output, such as video, can consume much of a monthly allowance, and nothing shows the per-task cost before a run begins.

Where each agent ends its work

	Manus	Devin	Genspark
Category	General-purpose tasks	Software engineering	Research and workspace
What you receive	Report, dataset, simple site	Pull request or code change	Deck, sheet, document, site
Works inside your systems?	Its own cloud sandbox	Your repository, through Git	Its own workspace
Web research	Core use case	Not the focus	Core use case
Code work	Script-level, inside tasks	Purpose-built, repository-level	Project scaffolding, not engineering review
Free access	Daily refresh credits	Light agent quota	Daily credits
Entry paid plan	About $20/month	$20/month	$24.99/month
Main review point	Output verification	Pull request review	Source and output verification
Weakest fit	Engineering tickets	General research	Reproducible custom software

This is not a ranking. It shows where each product is designed to finish, which is the fastest way to rule two of the three out.

How to choose by the job

Work through these in order. The first two usually settle it.

1. What must the output be? A deliverable, a code change, or an editable workspace file.
2. Where does review happen? If your safety net is a pull request, Devin fits. If it is a person reading a report, Manus or Genspark fits.
3. How much web-and-source work is involved? Both Manus and Genspark research the web; Genspark pushes harder into workspace outputs, Manus into finishing a broader task.
4. Does it touch files and structured data? All three handle files, but only Devin treats a code repository as first-class input.
5. Does it run unattended or on a schedule? Manus and Genspark both offer scheduled or recurring runs; Devin is session-based around engineering tasks.
6. What does a failed run cost? All three meter or limit usage, so budget for retries, not just the plan price.
7. What access are you handing over? Devin needs repository access; the other two run in their own environments. Decide the credential scope first.

Pricing, limits and integrations change faster than any comparison tracks, so confirm the current numbers on each vendor's page before you commit.

A concrete example (not a test)

Suppose a small team wants a source-grounded competitor brief, a deck built from it, and one small fix shipped to their own site. This is a hypothetical workflow built from the documented strengths above, not a recorded test.

1. Ask Manus to gather public information on three competitors and return a structured brief. You read it and correct anything wrong.
2. Hand the brief to Genspark to produce an editable deck, then adjust the slides and figures yourself.
3. Give Devin a small, well-scoped task from the same work, such as updating a pricing page, and review the pull request it opens.

The point is not that these products were benchmarked against each other. It is that the three jobs have different finish lines. If every task you have ends in a pull request, you do not need the other two; if every task ends in a document, the reverse is true.

Pricing checked on 13 October 2026

Prices move quickly here, so every figure below records what was published on the date shown. Where monthly and annual billing differ, both are given.

Product	Free tier	Entry paid plan	Higher tiers	Source
Manus	Refresh credits (reported at 300/day)	Paid plans from about $20/month for 4,000 monthly credits	Roughly $40/month (8,000 credits) and $200/month (40,000 credits); annual billing discounted about 17%	manus.im/pricing
Devin	Free plan, light agent quota	Pro $20/month	Max $200/month; Teams $80/month plus $40/month per full developer seat (up to 200 users); Enterprise custom	devin.ai/pricing
Genspark	Free plan, 100 credits/day and 1 GB storage	Plus $24.99/month, or $19.99/month billed annually ($239.99/year), 10,000 credits	Pro $249.99/month, or $199.99/month billed annually ($2,399.99/year), 125,000 credits; Team $30/seat/month; Enterprise custom	genspark.ai/pricing

Read the table with two cautions. Monthly and annual prices are not equivalent, because the lower Genspark figures require paying for a year up front. And the units are not comparable: a Manus credit, a Genspark credit and a Devin quota unit account for work differently, so they should not be treated as if they measured the same thing.

What changed in 2026

Three developments change how these products should be understood.

Manus became independent again. Meta announced a reported deal for Manus in December 2025. China's regulators ordered it unwound in April 2026, and Manus said in August 2026 that it would return to operating as an independent company. It later reported fresh funding. For a buyer, the practical point is that the "who owns this vendor" question now has a current answer.

Devin re-priced. Cognition retired its old plans in April 2026 and introduced the self-serve lineup above, also moving some free tools onto metered billing. In September 2026 it reported large per-task cost reductions from model and harness changes, which means the old "$500/month Team" figure still circulating in older articles is out of date.

Genspark widened from search into a workspace. Its 2026 direction is a connected workspace spanning research, slides, sheets, documents, media and an app builder, rather than a single search agent. It also publishes a Microsoft partnership as a vendor claim, which should be read as a company statement rather than an independent result.

Access, data and review

Access is where these products differ most in practice, and it is easy to miss.

• Devin needs ongoing access to your code repositories. The natural guardrail is the pull request: nothing reaches your main branch until a person approves it. Scope the repository access as you would for a new contractor.
• Manus runs in its own cloud environment and returns artifacts, which lowers the blast radius of a mistake, but scheduled and long-running tasks still deserve review before their output is used.
• Genspark runs in its own workspace and storage. Confirm what data the plan retains and whether generated output carries commercial-use rights, which on current individual plans are guaranteed only through the end of 2026.

For any of the three, a separate, tightly scoped account is a sensible default before you connect real systems. None of this replaces your own security review.

Limits worth knowing before you pay

• Credits are unpredictable in practice. None of the three shows a per-task cost before a run begins, so budget for retries.
• Free tiers are for evaluation, not production. Daily or light quotas are enough to judge the experience, not to run a week of work.
• Scope beats benchmarks. Devin cannot produce a research report, and Manus and Genspark are not built to act as an engineering teammate.
• Vendor benchmarks are not neutral. Where a company reports its own performance, treat the number as a company claim until an independent source repeats it.

Frequently asked questions

Which is better, Manus, Devin or Genspark? None of them wins across the board, because they finish different work. Manus is built for general multi-step tasks and deliverables, Devin for software-engineering tasks that end in a pull request, and Genspark for research that becomes slides, sheets or documents. Match the agent to the output you need rather than to a single ranking.

Are Manus, Devin and Genspark interchangeable? No. They overlap in places, but each is designed around a different endpoint: a general deliverable, a code change, or a workspace document. Treating them as substitutes causes the most common mismatch, which is asking one agent to produce the output another one is built for.

How much do Manus, Devin and Genspark cost? As of 13 October 2026: Manus has a free tier and paid plans from about $20 per month; Devin is free to start, with Pro at $20 per month, Max at $200 per month, and Teams from $80 per month plus $40 per full developer seat; Genspark is free to start, with Plus at $24.99 per month ($19.99 billed annually) and Pro at $249.99 per month ($199.99 billed annually). Check each vendor's pricing page before buying.

Do these agents replace a person? No. Each is designed to be reviewed before its output is used. Devin opens pull requests for approval, Manus returns a deliverable you should verify, and Genspark cites sources you should check. Treat all three as work you supervise, not work you hand over blind.

What happened between Manus and Meta? Meta announced a reported deal for Manus in December 2025, Chinese regulators ordered it unwound in April 2026, and Manus said in August 2026 that it would return to operating as an independent company. Manus later reported fresh funding. If corporate status matters to your decision, check the company's own announcements.

Can Manus or Genspark replace Devin for coding? Not for engineering work as Devin defines it. Manus and Genspark can write scripts or scaffold small projects inside a task, but Devin is built to work inside a repository, run tests and return a reviewable change. For editing code alongside you, a coding assistant such as Claude Code or Cursor is the more natural fit.

Bottom line

Start from the end, not the brand. If the work ends in a document, a deck or a dataset, Manus or Genspark is the closer fit and Devin is the wrong tool. If it ends in a reviewable code change, the reverse is true. Manus and Genspark then split on where the output lands: a general artifact from Manus, or an editable workspace file from Genspark.

None of the three is a hands-off employee. Each works best when a person defines the task clearly and checks the result. Compare real options on the AI Tools Vault categories page, or line two of them up side by side with the compare tool before you spend anything.