head to head · open source
Dify vs CowAgent
Dify has 160,251 GitHub stars, 25,336 forks, 1,067 open issues and last shipped yesterday. CowAgent has 47,754 stars, 10,412 forks, 24 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Dify leads on adoption by 236% (160,251 vs 47,754 stars). Dify is written in Python under a custom or non-standard licence; CowAgent is written in Python under MIT. Dify has attracted 16% as many forks as stars, CowAgent 22%. Dify was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 4 topic tags (ai, claude, deepseek, llm), 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 | CowAgent | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 160K | ★ 48K |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 25K | ⑂ 10K |
| 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 CowAgent if
- You want the CowAgent feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and CowAgent 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 CowAgent
[English] [ 中文 ] [ 繁體中文 ] [ 日本語 ] CowAgent is an open source super AI assistant that proactively plans tasks, controls your computer and external services, creates and runs Skills, builds a personal knowledge base and long term memory, forms multi agent teams, and grows alongside you through self evolution — a reference implementation of Agent Harness engineering. CowAgent is lightweight, easy to deploy, and built to extend. Plug in any major LLM provider and run it 24/7 on a personal computer or server, across the web and all major IM platforms. 🌐 Website · 📖 Docs · 🚀 Quick Start · 🧩 Skill Hub · 💻 Download…
read the full CowAgent overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Dify or CowAgent more popular?
Dify has 160,251 GitHub stars and CowAgent has 47,754. Dify has the larger community by that measure.
Are Dify and CowAgent free?
Both are open source. Dify has no licence declared in this registry, and CowAgent is licensed under MIT. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Dify and CowAgent?
Dify is written in Python and CowAgent in Python. 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 CowAgent?
Choose Dify if you want the larger community (160,251 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose CowAgent if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.