head to head · open source
Dify vs outlines
Dify has 160,251 GitHub stars, 25,336 forks, 1,067 open issues and last shipped yesterday. outlines has 15,998 stars, 911 forks, 166 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. Dify leads on adoption by 902% (160,251 vs 15,998 stars). Dify is written in Python under a custom or non-standard licence; outlines is written in Python under Apache-2.0. Dify has attracted 16% as many forks as stars, outlines 6%. Dify was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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 | outlines | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 160K | ★ 16K |
| License | Custom / other | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-09-21 |
| Forks | ⑂ 25K | ⑂ 911 |
| 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 outlines if
- You want the outlines 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 outlines 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 outlines
🗒️ Structured outputs for LLMs 🗒️ Made with ❤👷️ by the team at .txt Trusted by NVIDIA, Cohere, HuggingFace, vLLM, etc. [![PyPI Version][pypi version badge]][pypi] [![Downloads][downloads badge]][pypistats] [![Stars][stars badge]][stars] [![Discord][discord badge]][discord] [![Blog][dottxt blog badge]][dottxt blog] [![Twitter][twitter badge]][twitter] The .txt API is currently in early access. Request access here → 🚀 Building the future of structured generation We're working with select partners to develop new interfaces to structured generation. Need XML, FHIR, custom schemas or grammars? Let's talk. Audit…
read the full outlines overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Dify or outlines more popular?
Dify has 160,251 GitHub stars and outlines has 15,998. Dify has the larger community by that measure.
Are Dify and outlines free?
Both are open source. Dify has no licence declared in this registry, and outlines is licensed under Apache-2.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Dify and outlines?
Dify is written in Python and outlines 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 outlines?
Choose Dify if you want the larger community (160,251 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose outlines if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.