Dify

Dify is an open-source LLM app development platform for building RAG pipelines, AI agents, and workflow-based applications with observability built in.

Overview

Dify provides a visual canvas for composing LLM applications that combine prompts, retrieval over private documents, tools, and multi-step workflows. Teams can connect model providers of their choice, build knowledge bases with hybrid retrieval, and ship assistants as web apps or APIs. Its LLMOps features cover annotation, monitoring, and cost tracking, which makes production operation practical rather than experimental. Open-source self-hosting is a major draw for companies with data residency requirements. Its annotation and monitoring tools turn prompt tuning into a measurable process instead of guesswork, which matters once users depend on the app. The knowledge base supports document versioning so retrieval stays accurate as source material is updated.

Key Features

• Visual prompt orchestration and workflow canvas for LLM apps
• RAG pipeline with document ingestion and hybrid retrieval
• Multi-model support across hosted and self-hosted providers
• Built-in LLMOps for annotation, monitoring, and cost analysis
• API and embeddable web app delivery for every built application
• Self-hosting option with open-source core for data control
• Cost tracking per model and per application to keep LLM spending predictable

Pricing

Dify’s open-source edition is free to self-host, while the cloud service offers a free tier plus paid plans by message volume, knowledge base size, and team features. Enterprise deployments add SSO, private model access, and dedicated support under commercial agreements. Cloud plans scale with message volume and knowledge base size as adoption grows.

Who Is It For

Dify is built for product and engineering teams shipping LLM features into real products, especially where private data and model choice matter. It fits companies moving from prompt experiments to production applications. Product teams like that business stakeholders can iterate on prompts without redeploying code. Its open-source community contributes integrations and self-hosting recipes that reduce setup effort.

FAQ

Is Dify free to use?

Yes. Dify’s open-source edition is free to self-host, and the cloud offers a free tier with paid plans for higher usage.

Does Dify offer an API?

Yes. Every Dify application can be delivered through APIs with structured outputs, making it straightforward to embed in products.

How does Dify compare to alternatives?

Dify provides more LLM app scaffolding than general automation tools like n8n or Coze, while trading away some breadth of non-AI app integrations.

Can Dify use local models?

Yes. Dify connects to self-hosted model endpoints as well as hosted providers, which supports data residency and cost-control strategies.