head to head · open source
Dify vs ChainForge
Dify has 160,251 GitHub stars, 25,336 forks, 1,067 open issues and last shipped yesterday. ChainForge has 3,040 stars, 260 forks, 71 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. Dify leads on adoption by 5,171% (160,251 vs 3,040 stars). Dify is written in Python under a custom or non-standard licence; ChainForge is written in TypeScript under MIT. Dify has attracted 16% as many forks as stars, ChainForge 9%. Dify was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (ai), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| Dify | ChainForge | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 160K | ★ 3.0K |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | Python | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-29 |
| Forks | ⑂ 25K | ⑂ 260 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Dify if
- You weight community size — 160K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick ChainForge if
- You want the ChainForge feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and ChainForge fits your workflow better
About Dify
Dify Cloud · Self hosting · Documentation · Dify edition overview Dify is an open source LLM app development platform. Its intuitive interface combines AI workflow, RAG pipeline, agent capabilities, model management, observability features (including Opik, Langfuse, and Arize Phoenix) and more, letting you quickly go from prototype to production. Here's a list of the core features: Quick start Before installing Dify, make sure your machine meets the following minimum system requirements: CPU = 2 Core RAM = 4 GiB The easiest way to start the Dify server is through Docker Compose. Before running Dify with the…
About ChainForge
⛓️🛠️ ChainForge An open source visual environment for battle testing prompts to LLMs. ChainForge is a data flow prompt engineering environment for analyzing and evaluating LLM responses. It enables rapid fire, quick and dirty comparison of prompts, models, and response quality that goes beyond ad hoc chatting with individual LLMs. With ChainForge, you can: Query multiple LLMs at once to test prompt ideas and variations quickly and effectively. Compare response quality across prompt permutations, across models, and across model settings to choose the best prompt and model for your use case. Setup evaluation…
read the full ChainForge overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Dify or ChainForge more popular?
Dify has 160,251 GitHub stars and ChainForge has 3,040. Dify has the larger community by that measure.
Are Dify and ChainForge free?
Both are open source. Dify has no licence declared in this registry, and ChainForge is licensed under MIT. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Dify and ChainForge?
Dify is written in Python and ChainForge in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Dify or ChainForge?
Choose Dify if you want the larger community (160,251 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose ChainForge if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.