head to head · open source
Dify vs PaddleOCR
Dify has 156,167 GitHub stars, 24,658 forks, 1,067 open issues and last shipped yesterday. PaddleOCR has 89,729 stars, 11,355 forks, 243 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Dify leads on adoption by 74% (156,167 vs 89,729 stars). Dify is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; PaddleOCR is written in Python under Apache-2.0. Dify has attracted 16% as many forks as stars, PaddleOCR 13%. 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 | PaddleOCR | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 156K | ★ 90K |
| License | Custom / other | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 25K | ⑂ 11K |
| 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 PaddleOCR if
- You want the PaddleOCR 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 PaddleOCR 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 PaddleOCR
PaddleOCR is an Apache 2.0 Python OCR and document AI toolkit that converts PDFs and images into structured, LLM ready JSON or Markdown across more than 100 languages, and it is built for developers who need to feed documents into RAG pipelines, agents, and document parsing services.
read the full PaddleOCR overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Dify or PaddleOCR more popular?
Dify has 156,167 GitHub stars and PaddleOCR has 89,729. Dify has the larger community by that measure.
Are Dify and PaddleOCR free?
Both are open source. Dify has no licence declared in this registry, and PaddleOCR is licensed under Apache-2.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Dify and PaddleOCR?
Dify is written in TypeScript and PaddleOCR 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 PaddleOCR?
Choose Dify if you want the larger community (156,167 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose PaddleOCR if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.