head to head · open source
Dify vs headroom
Dify has 156,167 GitHub stars, 24,658 forks, 1,067 open issues and last shipped yesterday. headroom has 72,745 stars, 5,589 forks, 643 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Dify leads on adoption by 115% (156,167 vs 72,745 stars). Dify is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; headroom is written in Python under Apache-2.0. Dify has attracted 16% as many forks as stars, headroom 8%. headroom was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (agent, 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 | headroom | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 156K | ★ 73K |
| License | Custom / other | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 25K | ⑂ 5.6K |
| 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 headroom if
- You want the headroom feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and headroom 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 headroom
Headroom is an Apache 2.0 Python library, local proxy, agent wrapper and MCP server that compresses tool outputs, logs, files, RAG chunks and conversation history before they reach an LLM, and it is built for developers running AI coding agents or LLM applications who want to cut token usage without changing the answers they get.
read the full headroom overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Dify or headroom more popular?
Dify has 156,167 GitHub stars and headroom has 72,745. Dify has the larger community by that measure.
Are Dify and headroom free?
Both are open source. Dify has no licence declared in this registry, and headroom is licensed under Apache-2.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Dify and headroom?
Dify is written in TypeScript and headroom 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 headroom?
Choose Dify if you want the larger community (156,167 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose headroom if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.