LlamaIndex vs LangChain vs Haystack vs Dify
A side-by-side look at scores, pricing and features — with RECATOOLS' ASEAN-aware verdict for each.
LlamaIndex
Document parsing platform plus open-source RAG framework
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LangChain
MIT-licensed framework for building LLM agents in Python and JavaScrip...
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Haystack
Open-source orchestration framework from deepset for building producti...
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Dify
Open-source canvas for LLM workflows, RAG knowledge bases and agents
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| RECATOOLS Score | 8 / 10 | 8.1 / 10 | 7.5 / 10 | 8.2 / 10 |
| Capability | — | |||
| Value for money | — | |||
| Ease of use | — | |||
| ASEAN readiness | — | |||
| API quality | — | |||
| Pricing | Freemium | Open Source | Freemium | Open Source |
| Free tier | MIT-licensed framework is free to self-host. LlamaParse Free plan: 10K credits a month, 5 indexes, community support | LangChain, LangGraph and deepagents are free under MIT; LangSmith Developer is free for 1 seat with 5k base traces a month | Open-source framework (Apache-2.0) is free to self-host. | Self-hosted Community edition free under the Dify Open Source License; Cloud Sandbox: 200 message credits total, 1 member, 5 apps, 50 docs |
| Paid from | From $50/month (Starter, 40K credits; 1,000 credits = $1.25) | $39/seat/month (LangSmith Plus, 10k base traces included), then usage | Enterprise is quoted by deepset; the free Studio tier allows one user | $59/month (Professional, or $590/year) |
| Has API | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Open source | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Free to use | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Users | — | 1m+ developers | 25K+ GitHub stars | Over 1.4 million machines (self-hosted), 180,000+ developers |
| Founded | 2022 | 2022 | 2020 | 2023 |
| Maker | — | LangChain Inc. | deepset | LangGenius, Inc. |
| Verdict | LlamaIndex has moved from being primarily a RAG framework to selling LlamaParse, a document-processing platform for parsing, extraction, classification and indexing, priced in credits from a free plan to custom Enterpris... |
LangChain is the quickest way to get an agent working across many model providers, and since 1.0 it is a steadier dependency: one create_agent entry point, LangGraph's durable runtime underneath, frequent releases and a... |
What this is for: Building production RAG, search, and agent pipelines with explicit, testable, modular components. Who this is for: Engineering teams that need control and observability over retrieval and generation, f... |
Dify gives you a visual workflow builder, a RAG pipeline and agents in one self-hostable package, and everything you build becomes an API or MCP server straight away. Releases are frequent, and the August 2026 sandboxed... |
| Full review → | Full review → | Full review → | Full review → |
Comparisons cover up to 4 tools. Scores are RECATOOLS editorial assessments; verify current pricing on each vendor's site.