MediatR alternatives compared

Since version 13, MediatR is no longer under an open-source-only license, and many teams are looking at the alternatives. This page compares the ones most often suggested, from their own documentation and NuGet packages. It is written by the AnyMediator project, so check the sources at the end for anything that matters to your decision.

Facts as of November 2026.

MediatR's license today

• Versions 13.0.0 and later are dual licensed: the Reciprocal Public License 1.5, a copyleft license that requires releasing your own source under the same terms, or Lucky Penny Software's commercial license.
• The Community edition is free for organizations with gross annual revenue under $5 million that never received more than $10 million in outside capital. Government agencies are not eligible. It requires registering for a license key.
• Paid tiers are priced per number of developers.
• Without a valid key MediatR keeps working and logs a warning; there is no license server.
• Versions up to 12.5.0 remain Apache-2.0 and can be used indefinitely, but receive no updates.

At a glance

	AnyMediator	FreeMediator	MediatR	Mediator	LiteBus	Wolverine
License	Apache-2.0	MIT	RPL-1.5 or commercial	MIT	MIT	MIT
Same API as MediatR	Yes, namespace AnyMediator	Yes, namespace FreeMediator	—	Similar names; ValueTask, different delegates, singleton by default	No (ICommand, IQuery, IEvent)	No (convention-based handlers)
Dispatch	Generic wrappers built once per message type	Reflection and Reflection.Emit	Runtime reflection	Source generator	Reflection at registration	Code generated at startup or ahead of time
Stream requests	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Pipeline behaviors	Yes	Yes, also for notifications	Yes	Yes	Pre/post/error stages instead	Middleware
Pre/post-processors	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Through middleware
Exception handlers and actions	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Error policies
Notification strategies	Sequential, parallel, continue on exception, plus sinks	Sequential	Sequential, parallel	Sequential, parallel	Sequential or parallel, by priority	Local queues
Tracing	OpenTelemetry spans and metric	Not documented	Not built in	In 3.1 (pre-release)	Not documented	Yes
Native AOT	Not supported	Not documented (uses Reflection.Emit)	Not advertised	Yes	Not documented	In progress
Targets	.NET 8, .NET 10	.NET 10	.NET Framework 4.6.2, .NET Standard 2.0, .NET 8–10	.NET Standard 2.0, .NET 8	.NET 10	.NET 9, .NET 10

Which one to choose

• Keep MediatR if your organization qualifies for the Community edition or is happy to pay for a license and support from its author.
• AnyMediator if you want to leave MediatR without touching handlers: same type names and configuration API, all of MediatR's features including streams, processors and exception handlers, Apache-2.0 with no key. Migration is a package, a namespace and the registration call.
• FreeMediator for a close MediatR clone on .NET 10 when you do not need streams, processors or exception handlers.
• Mediator if raw speed or Native AOT matters most, thanks to its source generator. Expect to adapt behaviors to ValueTask and its delegate types.
• Wolverine if you also want messaging, queues and durable outboxes: it is a framework rather than a mediator library, with its own handler conventions.
• LiteBus if you prefer separate command, query and event mediators and are on .NET 10.

For speed numbers measured on the same machine, see Performance: AnyMediator is on par with MediatR for Send and faster for Publish, while Mediator's source generator is an order of magnitude faster than both.

Sources

• FreeMediator: repository, NuGet
• MediatR: license, license agreement, pricing and FAQ, NuGet, NuGet 12.5.0
• Mediator: repository and differences from MediatR, NuGet
• LiteBus: repository, differences from MediatR, NuGet
• Wolverine: Wolverine as mediator, from MediatR, AOT, NuGet

---

AnyMediator is an independent project. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by MediatR, Jimmy Bogard, Lucky Penny Software or the other projects on this page.