Dify

Open-source canvas for LLM workflows, RAG knowledge bases and agents

Agents & Automation Open Source Has API Open Source
Researched · Published · Reviewed
RECATOOLS Score
8.2 / 10
Capability
8
Value for money
9
Ease of use
7
ASEAN readiness
7
API quality
8
Founded
2023
HQ
Menlo Park, California, USA
Users
Over 1.4 million machines (self-hosted), 180,000+ developers
Developer
LangGenius, Inc.

Overview

Dify is an open-source platform from LangGenius, Inc. for building LLM applications on a visual canvas: workflows with human review steps and triggers, RAG knowledge pipelines and sandboxed agents, each published as an API, web app or MCP server. It can be self-hosted under a modified Apache 2.0 licence or used on Dify Cloud.

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Pricing

Pricing shown for reference only. These figures reflect RECATOOLS research as of 14 Oct 2026 and may be out of date or incomplete. This is not financial or purchasing advice — always confirm the current price on the provider’s official website before making any decision.

Community
Free
Self-hosted, Dify Open Source License
  • All core features in the public repository
  • Single workspace
Sandbox
Free
Dify Cloud trial
  • 200 message credits
  • 1 team member, 5 apps
  • 50 knowledge documents, 50MB storage
  • 30 days of logs
Team
$159/month
Or $1,590/year per workspace
  • 10,000 message credits a month
  • 50 team members, 200 apps
  • 1,000 knowledge documents, 20GB storage
  • Unlimited trigger events
Enterprise
Custom
Contact sales
  • Commercial licence authorisation
  • Multiple workspaces and SSO
  • Negotiated SLAs and official support

What you can produce with Dify

  • A RAG chatbot over your own documents, built from a knowledge pipeline without writing retrieval code
  • Multi-step workflows with branching, loops and a human-input node that pauses for review
  • Workflows started automatically by a schedule, a webhook or a plugin event
  • Any Dify app published as an API, an embeddable web app or an MCP server
  • A self-hosted deployment on Docker or Kubernetes with your own model provider keys
  • A sandboxed agent that runs commands and works with files, used alone or inside a workflow (beta)
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RECATOOLS Verdict

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 Agent shows it moving beyond chat apps. The free Sandbox is a trial, not a plan: 200 message credits in total and one member.

Two cautions. The licence bars running a multi-tenant service from the source without permission, so check it before building a SaaS on Dify. And 13 security advisories in 2026, several cross-tenant, mean self-hosters must patch promptly. For internal AI apps you want to own, it is an excellent starting point.

Desk research by RECATOOLS from public sources, written with AI assistance — not a hands-on test. How we review

What we found

Dify is an open-source platform for building LLM applications on a visual canvas: chatbots, workflows, retrieval-augmented knowledge bases and agents, each published as an API, a web app or an MCP server. It comes from LangGenius, Inc., a Delaware company that a March 2026 funding release placed in Menlo Park and that its chief executive, Luyu Zhang, leads. The project went public on GitHub in April 2023 and ships often; version 1.17.0 in August 2026 added a beta Agent that works inside its own sandbox, workspace-level skills, E2B cloud sandboxes and human approval steps inside loops.

The workflow side is where it is strongest. Nodes cover LLM calls, knowledge retrieval, code, HTTP requests, branching, iteration and a human-input node that pauses a run for review, and workflows can start on a schedule, a webhook or a plugin event. A knowledge pipeline handles ingestion and chunking, and a marketplace supplies model providers and tools.

Read the licence before you plan anything commercial. It is Apache 2.0 with conditions: you may not run a multi-tenant service from the source without written permission, and you may not remove the logo or copyright from the frontend. GitHub classifies it as "Other". Security also deserves attention: 13 advisories were published against the project in 2026, several of them cross-tenant data exposures, so self-hosters need to keep up with releases.

Dify Cloud starts with a free Sandbox: 200 message credits in total, one member, five apps and 50 knowledge documents. Professional costs $59 a month or $590 a year, Team $159 or $1,590, and Enterprise is quoted with SSO and a commercial licence. In March 2026 LangGenius raised a $30 million Series Pre-A led by HSG at a $180 million valuation, and it says Dify runs on more than 1.4 million machines, with 280 enterprise customers including Maersk and Novartis. Both figures are the company's own.

Compiled by RECATOOLS from public sources: vendor documentation and pricing, code repositories and published reporting.

About this listing

Researched on
Published on
Last reviewed

This entry was compiled from publicly available data including Dify's official website, press releases, documentation, and reputable third-party publications. RECATOOLS is not affiliated with Dify unless explicitly stated.

Data accuracy

Third-party AI tools update their pricing, features, availability, and policies frequently. Information here may be outdated by the time you read this — we make reasonable efforts to keep listings current, but cannot guarantee absolute accuracy.

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