head to head · open source
Dify vs headroom
Dify has 160,251 GitHub stars, 25,336 forks, 1,067 open issues and last shipped yesterday. headroom has 78,657 stars, 6,141 forks, 643 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Dify leads on adoption by 104% (160,251 vs 78,657 stars). Dify is written in Python 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%. Dify 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 | ★ 160K | ★ 79K |
| License | Custom / other | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 25K | ⑂ 6.1K |
| 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 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 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 headroom
Quickstart · Install · Proof · Agents · Docs · Discord · llms.txt AI agents / LLMs: read /llms.txt here, or fetch the live index · full docs blob . Headroom compresses everything your AI agent reads — tool outputs, logs, RAG chunks, files, and conversation history — before it reaches the LLM. Same answers, fraction of the tokens. Compression runs on your machine; no prompt or file content is sent anywhere to be compressed. 10,144 → 1,260 tokens. The same FATAL found. What it does Library — compress(messages) in Python or TypeScript, inline in any app. Proxy — headroom proxy port 8787 , zero code changes, any…
read the full headroom overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Dify or headroom more popular?
Dify has 160,251 GitHub stars and headroom has 78,657. 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 Python 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 (160,251 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.