head to head · open source
Dify vs PocketFlow
Dify has 156,167 GitHub stars, 24,658 forks, 1,067 open issues and last shipped yesterday. PocketFlow has 11,176 stars, 1,213 forks, 75 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. Dify leads on adoption by 1,297% (156,167 vs 11,176 stars). Dify is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; PocketFlow is written in Python under MIT. Dify has attracted 16% as many forks as stars, PocketFlow 11%. Dify was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (agentic-ai, agentic-framework, agentic-workflow), 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 | PocketFlow | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 156K | ★ 11K |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-07-26 |
| Forks | ⑂ 25K | ⑂ 1.2K |
| 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 PocketFlow if
- You want the PocketFlow feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and PocketFlow 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 PocketFlow
PocketFlow is a 100 line, zero dependency Python framework for building LLM agents, multi agent systems, workflows, and RAG pipelines, aimed at developers who want graph based orchestration without the weight of larger frameworks.
read the full PocketFlow overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Dify or PocketFlow more popular?
Dify has 156,167 GitHub stars and PocketFlow has 11,176. Dify has the larger community by that measure.
Are Dify and PocketFlow free?
Both are open source. Dify has no licence declared in this registry, and PocketFlow is licensed under MIT. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Dify and PocketFlow?
Dify is written in TypeScript and PocketFlow 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 PocketFlow?
Choose Dify if you want the larger community (156,167 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose PocketFlow if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.