Dify

Open-source platform to build agentic workflows, RAG pipelines, and AI apps in one workspace.

Data verified Oct 17, 2026

Pundit
Score

Price: Free; paid from $590 per workspace per year
Try it free: Free plan
Best for: Startups building LLM apps

Editorial Verdict

AI-researched, not hands-on tested

Dify is a platform for building agents, agentic workflows and chatbots on your own data, with a hosted cloud and a self-hostable Community Edition. It fits teams that want a collaborative app builder with built-in knowledge and publishing. A limitation is the license: it is a modified Apache 2.0 that restricts running a multi-tenant service and removing the logo without a commercial license, so it is not OSI open source. Compare Langflow, RAGFlow or n8n if you need a standard open-source license.

Reviewed by AIToolPundit Editorial Team · last verified October 2026

About Dify

Dify is a production-oriented platform where teams visually build agentic workflows, RAG knowledge pipelines, and LLM-powered agents in a single collaborative workspace, then ship them as a hosted app, API, or reusable tool. It's aimed at both non-technical citizen developers and engineering teams at enterprises (used by companies like Volvo, Ricoh, and Deloitte) who need to move from prototype to production without rebuilding their stack. Its main differentiator is deployment flexibility across managed cloud, VPC, and self-hosted Docker, paired with an open-source Community Edition that keeps the full agent runtime and workflow editor.

Screenshots

Commonly Cited Strengths & Limitations

Strengths

Builds agents, workflows and chatbots, publishable as web apps, APIs or MCP servers
Knowledge base features with retrieval and document storage per plan
Free Sandbox plan on cloud, and a free self-hosted Community Edition
Cloud plans include unlimited log history on Professional and Team; Team lists 50 members and 200 apps

Limitations

Low variable size limits in the cloud version can break real workflows
Custom code nodes run in a heavily sandboxed environment that blocks some libraries
Learning curve and UI complexity/feature sprawl for new users
Less flexible than code frameworks; complex business logic often needs custom code
No built-in polished frontend beyond a basic embedded widget
Weak version control and awkward diffing of prompts/configs
Self-hosting puts upgrades, backups, auth, and monitoring on you
Documentation and educational content could be richer

Common Use Cases

Building custom AI agents
Deploying customized chatbots and AI assistants with domain knowledge
Generating and summarizing documents from knowledge bases
Integrating AI into existing products via backend APIs
Orchestrating LLM workflows for enterprises
Building RAG knowledge pipelines

Details

Pricing Model: Freemium
Starting Price: Free; paid from $590 per workspace per year
Team Size: Small Business, Enterprise
Category: Developer Tools

Who is Dify for?

Startups building LLM apps

Professional lists 50 apps, 5,000 message credits per month and unlimited triggers per workflow.

Teams with private documents

Knowledge features with plan-based document counts and storage up to 20GB on Team.

Self-hosters

Community Edition runs via Docker Compose with all core features in the public repo.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Dify free?

Dify offers a free plan, with paid plans starting at Free; paid from $590 per workspace per year.

Does Dify have an API?

Yes, Dify provides an API for developers.

Is Dify open source?

Yes, Dify is open source.

What does Dify integrate with?

Dify integrates with Model providers, MCP integrations, Marketplace tools, Data sources, Docker, Kubernetes (Helm chart).

Is Dify cloud-based or self-hosted?

Dify is offered as both cloud and self-hosted (hybrid) deployment.

What are the downsides of Dify?

Low variable size limits in the cloud version can break real workflows Also, Custom code nodes run in a heavily sandboxed environment that blocks some libraries

Who is Dify best for?

Dify is best suited for Startups building LLM apps, Teams with private documents, Self-hosters.

What can I use Dify for?

Common uses for Dify include building custom ai agents, deploying customized chatbots and ai assistants with domain knowledge, generating and summarizing documents from knowledge bases, integrating ai into existing products via backend apis.

What is the best alternative to Dify?

Our reviewed alternatives to Dify are Langflow, RAGFlow, Haystack and n8n. Open-source options: Langflow, RAGFlow, Haystack.

How does Dify compare to We0.ai?

Dify and We0.ai are both used for developer tools -- specifically no-code tools. See the full side-by-side comparison for pricing and feature differences.

Dify alternatives we reviewed

Reviewed when this listing was published; open-source options are marked.

See all reviewed alternatives →

Langflow
Open source
Low-code tool for building and deploying AI agents and MCP servers.
Cost:
Free / self-host
Licence:
Open source
Visit site →GitHub
RAGFlow
Open source
Open-source RAG engine that fuses retrieval with agent capabilities to create a context layer for LLMs.
Cost:
Free / self-host
Licence:
Open source
Visit site →GitHub
Haystack
Open source
Open-source AI orchestration framework for modular pipelines and agent workflows covering RAG, routing and memory.
Cost:
Free / self-host
Licence:
Open source
Visit site →GitHub
n8n
Platform for building AI agents and automated workflows with visual and code options, on your own infrastructure or n8n cloud.
Visit site →