head to head · open source
Dify vs crewAI
Dify has 160,251 GitHub stars, 25,336 forks, 1,067 open issues and last shipped yesterday. crewAI has 60,429 stars, 9,002 forks, 353 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Dify leads on adoption by 165% (160,251 vs 60,429 stars). Dify is written in Python under a custom or non-standard licence; crewAI is written in Python under MIT. Dify has attracted 16% as many forks as stars, crewAI 15%. crewAI 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 | crewAI | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 160K | ★ 60K |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 25K | ⑂ 9.0K |
| 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 crewAI if
- You want the crewAI feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and crewAI 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 crewAI
Homepage · Open Source · Docs · Start Cloud Trial · Blog · Forum Fast and Flexible Multi Agent Automation Framework CrewAI is an open source Python framework with high level abstractions and low level APIs for building production ready multi agent workflows. It gives developers autonomous agent collaboration through Crews and precise, event driven control through Flows. CrewAI Crews : Optimize for autonomy and collaborative intelligence with role based AI agents. CrewAI Flows : Build event driven automations that combine precise workflow control, single LLM calls, and native support for Crews. With over 100,000…
read the full crewAI overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Dify or crewAI more popular?
Dify has 160,251 GitHub stars and crewAI has 60,429. Dify has the larger community by that measure.
Are Dify and crewAI free?
Both are open source. Dify has no licence declared in this registry, and crewAI is licensed under MIT. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Dify and crewAI?
Dify is written in Python and crewAI 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 crewAI?
Choose Dify if you want the larger community (160,251 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose crewAI if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.