Overview

Dify is an open-source platform for building AI applications, combining visual workflows, knowledge retrieval, model management, and observability. It suits teams that want to build and publish grounded AI applications across hosted and self-managed deployments. Its breadth is a strength, but the practical fit depends on whether its workspace, member, app, storage, and usage allowances match your project.

Key features

Workflow Studio brings model calls, knowledge retrieval, tools, code, branching, triggers, and human review onto a collaborative visual canvas. Workflows can start from user input, API calls, schedules, webhooks, plugin events, or uploaded payloads, making the builder relevant to both interactive apps and event-driven processes.

Knowledge Pipeline converts files, online documents, drives, crawlers, and web content into searchable knowledge bases. Semantic, keyword, hybrid, and reranked retrieval, plus metadata filters and citations, give teams several ways to ground answers; the breadth is useful when retrieval quality and traceability matter, though the free hosted allowance is small.

Applications can be published as hosted web apps, website embeds, API endpoints, or MCP servers. Dify connects to proprietary and open-source model providers including OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini, and xAI. Its Marketplace includes Slack, Perplexity, ComfyUI, Firecrawl, and more than 200 other tools. That combination offers flexibility for teams assembling different model and tool stacks.

The Community Edition is open-source and self-deployable with Docker. Enterprise can run in a customer VPC, on-premises, or in an air-gapped network, with Helm deployment for Kubernetes. Enterprise controls include SAML/OIDC SSO, workflow-level RBAC, SCIM provisioning, tamper-evident audit logs, per-call traces, and PII-redacted prompt history. Dify reports SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001:2022 audits and says it maintains GDPR compliance for the second consecutive year.

Pricing

Dify offers a free hosted Sandbox, a free self-hosted Community Edition, two paid workspace plans, and custom-priced Enterprise. The paid plan summary says pricing starts at $59/mo; Professional and Team are billed annually at the stated workspace prices below.

Sandbox: 0.00 USD per free. It includes 200 message credits, one workspace and member, five apps, 50 knowledge documents, 50MB storage, 10 knowledge requests per minute, 3,000 trigger events, 30-day log history, and 5,000 API requests per month. Community support and help documentation are included. This is a constrained way to begin, but a solo project can hit the app, storage, or usage ceilings quickly.
Community: 0.00 USD per free. It provides core features released under the public repository, a single workspace, and the Dify Open Source License. For teams able to deploy and maintain their own instance, it avoids the hosted Sandbox's stated quotas; the trade-off is self-management.
Professional: 590.00 USD per year, billed $590 per workspace / year. It includes 5,000 message credits per month, one workspace, three members, 50 apps, 500 knowledge documents, 5GB storage, 100 knowledge requests per minute, and 20,000 trigger events per month. Triggers per workflow and log history are unlimited, and there is no Dify API rate limit. Priority email support is included. This fits a small team that needs more room than Sandbox without a large membership.
Team: 1590.00 USD per year, billed $1590 per workspace / year. It raises the monthly allowance to 10,000 message credits, 50 members, 200 apps, 1,000 knowledge documents, 20GB storage, and 1,000 knowledge requests per minute; trigger events and triggers per workflow are unlimited, log history is unlimited, and there is no Dify API rate limit. Priority email support is included. The higher price is most defensible when the larger team and usage limits matter.
Enterprise: custom pricing. It adds scalable deployment solutions, commercial license authorization, multiple workspaces, SSO, negotiated SLAs, advanced security controls, official updates and maintenance, and professional technical support. This is the fit for organizations needing these deployment and governance provisions; teams without those requirements can consider the lower tiers.

Platforms

Dify is available as a web platform, API, and self-hosted deployment. Docker-based Community Edition and Enterprise options spanning VPC, on-premises, air-gapped networks, and Kubernetes give teams meaningful control over where it runs.

Who it's for

Dify is a strong fit for builders and teams creating AI applications that need workflow orchestration, knowledge grounding, multiple model and tool integrations, or several publishing routes. Its self-hosted and Enterprise deployment options suit teams with infrastructure or security requirements. It is less compelling for a small hosted project that can live within Sandbox's single-member, five-app, and 50MB storage caps, or for organizations that do not need the broader workflow and deployment surface.

Pros and cons

Pros: Workflows combine models, retrieval, tools, code, branching, triggers, and human review, with several execution paths for interactive and event-driven use.
Pros: Retrieval offers semantic, keyword, hybrid, and reranked methods, with metadata filters and citations.
Pros: Hosted, API, embed, MCP, Docker, VPC, on-premises, and air-gapped options make it adaptable to different publishing and deployment needs.
Cons: Sandbox limits a workspace to one member and five apps, with 50MB storage and 200 message credits, so even modest hosted projects may need to move up or self-host.
Cons: Professional and Team pricing is per workspace per year, and both remain limited to one workspace; multiple workspaces are an Enterprise offering.
Cons: Professional allows three members, while Team costs more to reach 50; small teams should weigh that jump against their actual usage needs.

Alternatives

For adjacent options, see AI agent platforms and Retrieval-Augmented Generation Tools.

Botpress is another freemium API and web option; choose it if its conversation and seat allowances better match your needs.
Retool offers web, mobile, API, and self-hosted platforms; consider it when those platform options better fit your stack.
Workato Agentic is a freemium API and web alternative with a one-time-credit free plan; consider it if that allowance suits your starting needs.
Camunda offers API, web, and self-managed development across desktop platforms; consider it if those platform and development options fit your requirements.
CrewAI AMP offers API, self-hosted, and web access, with a free Basic plan capped at two automations and 50 executions; consider it if that small allowance fits.
Dust is a freemium API, extension, and web option with a free plan measured in credits; consider it if that format better suits your use.
Falcon Builder is another freemium API and web option.
Flowise offers self-hosted and desktop options as well as API and web access; its free plan includes two flows and assistants, 100 predictions per month, and 5MB storage.

Verdict

Choose Dify if you need a broad AI application platform with visual workflows, configurable knowledge retrieval, multiple publishing routes, and the option to self-host or deploy under Enterprise controls. Its main drawback is the gap between a tightly capped hosted free tier and annual per-workspace paid plans, particularly for teams needing more members or multiple workspaces. If the allowances and deployment model fit, Dify is a capable choice; if they do not, compare alternatives against your specific stack and quotas.

	Dify	Helios
Free plan	Yes	No
Free trial	No	No
Paid from	$49.17/mo	—
Open source	No	No
Platforms	api, self-hosted, Web	Web
Free plan	Yes	Yes
Paid from	59 /mo	—
Deployment model	both	cloud
Visual agent builder	Yes	—
Knowledge grounding	Yes	Yes
Voice agent support	Yes	—
Human handoff	Yes	—
Multi-agent support	—	No

Dify vs Helios

Dify

Helios