Dify vs Langflow

Dify

Dify is the pragmatic choice when a team wants a visual builder for agents and retrieval that it can self-host today and hand to non-engineers tomorrow; the Community Edition is real software, not a demo, and the 158K GitHub stars reflect that. Pay for Cloud only if you do not want to run Docker — the $59 Professional tier is one workspace with three seats and metered message credits, so a developer team will outgrow it or self-host. It is less suited to teams that want code-first pipelines or a single-vendor model stack.

Pros

• +Open-source Community Edition with single-command Docker deployment and an active repository
• +One canvas covers workflows, agents and a knowledge pipeline with retrieval testing
• +Apps publish as API endpoints, embeds or MCP tools with logs and feedback built in
• +Plugin marketplace for model providers, tools, data sources and MCP integrations
• +Self-hosted and cloud editions share the same product, so you can move between them

Cons

• −Cloud tiers meter message credits, members and storage per workspace, and annual billing is the headline
• −The open-source licence carries commercial conditions (multi-tenant and logo clauses) rather than plain Apache
• −Visual workflows get hard to review and version once they grow past a few dozen nodes
• −Enterprise features such as SSO, RBAC and audit logs are reserved for the paid Enterprise edition

Langflow

Langflow is the visual layer most teams reach for when a flow needs to be shown to someone who does not write Python, and the escape hatch into real code keeps it from becoming a toy. Deploying a flow as an API or MCP server in one step is the feature that earns it a place in production. The gap is commercial: no published pricing, no named vendor on the site, and support only via a contact form.

Pros

• +MIT-licensed with roughly 154,000 GitHub stars and an active release cadence
• +Any flow deploys as an HTTP API or an MCP server
• +Runs identically self-hosted, in the free cloud, or as a desktop app
• +Components can be edited as Python when the visual layer runs out

Cons

• −No pricing or support tiers published anywhere on the site
• −Desktop download requires a signup form and covers only Mac and Windows
• −The site names no operating company or jurisdiction
• −Visual flows get hard to reason about once they grow past a screen

Is Dify cheaper than Langflow?

Langflow is free to use; Dify starts at $59/mo.

Does Dify or Langflow have a free tier?

Both: Dify has a free tier, and Langflow is free to use.

Which has a public API, Dify or Langflow?

Both ship a public API, so either can be built on; the fact table above shows the platforms each one runs on.