Dify vs Refly.ai

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

Refly.ai

Refly turns a written description of a task into a repeatable, versioned automation that runs on top of existing coding agents rather than a proprietary model. Being open-source and self-hostable is a real advantage for technical teams, but the 'vibe'-based approach still needs testing to see how well it holds up on complex, multi-step automations.

Pros

• +Open-source, so the code can be audited or self-hosted
• +Runs on top of existing coding-agent backends instead of a single proprietary model
• +Free tier gives 100 credits a day to test before paying
• +Seed funding from known venture investors backs its continuity

Cons

• −Natural-language 'vibe' workflows can behave unpredictably on complex, multi-step automations
• −Being newer and open-source, the integration ecosystem is smaller than established workflow tools
• −Credit-based pricing makes heavy usage costs harder to predict than a flat seat price

Is Dify cheaper than Refly.ai?

On published entry prices, Refly.ai starts lower — $19.90/mo against $59/mo for Dify. Entry price is the lowest paid plan as we last verified it; what each plan includes differs.

Does Dify or Refly.ai have a free tier?

Both: Dify has a free tier, and Refly.ai has a free tier.

Which has a public API, Dify or Refly.ai?

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