Dify
Open-source platform for visually building, deploying, and operating LLM apps and AI agents.
- Category
- No-code/Low-code
- Pricing
- Open-source and free to self-host. Dify Cloud adds a free Sandbox tier plus paid Professional and Team plans billed monthly, with custom Enterprise pricing for larger organizations (see dify.ai/pricing for current tiers).
- Best for
- Dify is best suited for engineering and product teams building internal or customer-facing AI applications who want more control and flexibility than a purely no-code SaaS builder offers.
- Official site
- dify.ai
- Last updated
- August 2026
Dify has become one of the most widely adopted open-source platforms for building LLM applications, positioning itself between fully no-code chatbot builders and raw framework code like LangChain. Its core is a visual canvas where users chain together prompts, knowledge retrieval steps, tool calls, and conditional logic to construct anything from a simple chatbot to a multi-step autonomous agent, without needing to write orchestration code by hand.
What sets Dify apart from many no-code AI tools is that it is genuinely open source, meaning teams can self-host the entire stack on their own infrastructure for full data control, or use Dify's managed cloud service for convenience. It also supports a very wide range of model providers — commercial APIs like OpenAI and Anthropic as well as locally-hosted open-source models — so teams aren't locked into a single vendor's ecosystem as their needs evolve.
Beyond the visual builder, Dify ships with a built-in RAG pipeline for connecting proprietary documents and data sources, a prompt IDE for testing and refining prompts, and observability tooling to monitor how deployed apps are performing in production. This combination makes it popular with startups and engineering teams that want the speed of a low-code builder without giving up the flexibility to extend functionality with custom code when the visual tools reach their limits.
Dify is best suited for engineering and product teams building internal or customer-facing AI applications who want more control and flexibility than a purely no-code SaaS builder offers. It fits organizations with data-residency or self-hosting requirements, as well as startups that want to move fast with a visual builder but keep the option to extend with custom code. It's less ideal for a completely non-technical solo user who just wants the simplest possible drag-and-drop chatbot with zero setup.
Key features
Visual workflow builder
A drag-and-drop canvas for chaining prompts, retrieval steps, conditionals, and tool calls into complete AI application workflows.
RAG pipeline
Upload documents or connect data sources to give apps grounded, up-to-date knowledge via built-in retrieval-augmented generation.
Multi-model support
Swap between OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and self-hosted open-source models without rebuilding the app logic.
Prompt IDE
A dedicated environment for iterating on prompts, comparing outputs across models, and versioning prompt templates.
Agent and tool-calling framework
Build agents that can call external tools and APIs autonomously as part of a workflow.
Observability and analytics
Built-in logging, usage dashboards, and performance monitoring for apps once they're deployed.
Pricing breakdown
Community (self-hosted)
- Full core feature set
- Self-managed infrastructure
- Community support
Sandbox (Cloud)
- Limited usage quota
- Managed hosting
- Good for evaluation/prototyping
Professional / Team (Cloud)
- Higher usage limits
- Team collaboration features
- Priority support
Enterprise
- SSO and advanced security
- Dedicated support and SLAs
- Custom deployment options
Pros and cons
Pros
- Being open source means no vendor lock-in for the platform itself — organizations can inspect, modify, and self-host the code for compliance or cost reasons.
- Wide multi-model support lets teams switch LLM providers as pricing or capability landscapes change, without re-architecting the app.
- The combination of visual workflows plus code-level extensibility appeals to teams that outgrow purely no-code tools but don't want to build orchestration from scratch.
- Active GitHub community means frequent updates, third-party integrations, and a large base of shared workflow templates.
- Built-in RAG and observability reduce the amount of custom infrastructure teams need to stitch together themselves.
Cons
- Non-technical users may find the workflow builder more complex than simpler consumer-facing no-code chatbot tools.
- Self-hosting a production-grade instance requires real DevOps investment for scaling, monitoring, and upgrades over time.
- Cloud plan costs can scale quickly for high-traffic applications compared to a well-optimized self-hosted deployment.
- Some advanced governance and enterprise security features are reserved for higher-cost tiers, which can be a barrier for smaller teams needing them.
- Rapid open-source development pace means occasional breaking changes between versions that self-hosters need to track.
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Compare →Frequently asked questions
Is Dify really free to use?
The core platform is open source and free to self-host; Dify also offers a managed cloud service with a free Sandbox tier and paid plans for higher usage.
Do I need to know how to code to use Dify?
No coding is required to build basic workflows and chatbots via the visual builder, but coding knowledge helps for advanced customization and self-hosting.
Which LLMs does Dify support?
Dify supports over 100 model providers, including OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and self-hosted open-source models.
Can I connect my own data to a Dify app?
Yes, Dify includes a built-in RAG pipeline for indexing documents and other data sources so apps can answer using your own knowledge base.
Can I self-host Dify instead of using the cloud service?
Yes, Dify is open source and can be self-hosted via Docker on your own infrastructure.
Does Dify support building autonomous agents, not just chatbots?
Yes, Dify includes an agent framework with tool-calling support for building agents that can take actions, not just respond in chat.
Ready to try Dify?
Head to the official site to explore pricing and start a free trial where available.
Visit Dify →