head to head · open source
Dify vs distilly
Dify has 156,167 GitHub stars, 24,658 forks, 1,067 open issues and last shipped yesterday. distilly has 24,828 stars, 2,154 forks, 37 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Dify leads on adoption by 529% (156,167 vs 24,828 stars). Dify is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; distilly is written in Python under MIT. Dify has attracted 16% as many forks as stars, distilly 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 (agentic-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 | distilly | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 156K | ★ 25K |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 25K | ⑂ 2.2K |
| 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 distilly if
- You want the distilly feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and distilly 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 distilly
Distilly is an MIT licensed Python project that distills a person's messages, documents, interviews, and public sources into a reusable, source grounded Person Profile — packaged as an Agent Skill — so AI agents and compatible bots can work with that person's experience, judgment, voice, and ways of working.
read the full distilly overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Dify or distilly more popular?
Dify has 156,167 GitHub stars and distilly has 24,828. Dify has the larger community by that measure.
Are Dify and distilly free?
Both are open source. Dify has no licence declared in this registry, and distilly is licensed under MIT. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Dify and distilly?
Dify is written in TypeScript and distilly 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 distilly?
Choose Dify if you want the larger community (156,167 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose distilly if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.