head to head · open source
Dify vs CowAgent
Dify has 156,167 GitHub stars, 24,658 forks, 1,067 open issues and last shipped yesterday. CowAgent has 47,017 stars, 10,360 forks, 24 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Dify leads on adoption by 232% (156,167 vs 47,017 stars). Dify is written in TypeScript 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 | ★ 156K | ★ 47K |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 25K | ⑂ 10K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Dify if
- You weight community size — 156K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- 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 is an open source LLM application development platform built in TypeScript. It provides a visual interface for designing, testing, and deploying AI workflows, RAG pipelines, and agentic systems without writing extensive code. The platform lives in the generative AI development ecosystem and targets teams needing to move from prototype to production using consistent tooling across environments.
About CowAgent
CowAgent is an open source super AI assistant and Agent Harness, distributed under the MIT license and written in Python. It is the project formerly known as chatgpt on wechat, and it sits in the AI & Machine Learning / AI Development Platforms category. The repository carries roughly 46,975 stars, 10,351 forks, and 24 open issues, with four years of history and a most recent push on 15 September 2026. Its homepage is cowagent.ai, and the project describes itself as lightweight, easy to deploy, and built to extend.
read the full CowAgent overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Dify or CowAgent more popular?
Dify has 156,167 GitHub stars and CowAgent has 47,017. 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 TypeScript 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 (156,167 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose CowAgent if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.