head to head · open source
Dify vs Envoy AI Gateway
Dify has 156,167 GitHub stars, 24,658 forks, 1,067 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Envoy AI Gateway has 2,115 stars, 378 forks, 285 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Dify leads on adoption by 7,284% (156,167 vs 2,115 stars). Dify is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; Envoy AI Gateway is written in Go under Apache-2.0. Dify has attracted 16% as many forks as stars, Envoy AI Gateway 18%. Dify was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (ai, 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 | Envoy AI Gateway | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 156K | ★ 2.1K |
| License | Custom / other | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 25K | ⑂ 378 |
| 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 Envoy AI Gateway if
- You want the Envoy AI Gateway feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and Envoy AI Gateway 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 Envoy AI Gateway
Envoy AI Gateway is an open source control plane for AI and agent traffic, powered by Envoy. The README says the project is now Agent Router, an Agentic AI Foundation project, while the directory entry still uses the Envoy AI Gateway name. It lives in the Envoy, Envoy Gateway, Kubernetes, API gateway, LLM, and AI gateway ecosystem.
read the full Envoy AI Gateway overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Dify or Envoy AI Gateway more popular?
Dify has 156,167 GitHub stars and Envoy AI Gateway has 2,115. Dify has the larger community by that measure.
Are Dify and Envoy AI Gateway free?
Both are open source. Dify has no licence declared in this registry, and Envoy AI Gateway is licensed under Apache-2.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Dify and Envoy AI Gateway?
Dify is written in TypeScript and Envoy AI Gateway in Go. 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 Envoy AI Gateway?
Choose Dify if you want the larger community (156,167 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose Envoy AI Gateway if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.