head to head · open source
Dify vs Portkey AI Gateway
Dify has 160,251 GitHub stars, 25,336 forks, 1,067 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Portkey AI Gateway has 13,302 stars, 1,365 forks, 262 open issues and last shipped 5 months ago. Dify leads on adoption by 1,105% (160,251 vs 13,302 stars). Dify is written in Python under a custom or non-standard licence; Portkey AI Gateway is written in TypeScript under MIT. Dify has attracted 16% as many forks as stars, Portkey AI Gateway 10%. Dify was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (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 | Portkey AI Gateway | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 160K | ★ 13K |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | Python | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-05-25 |
| Forks | ⑂ 25K | ⑂ 1.4K |
| 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 Portkey AI Gateway if
- You want the Portkey AI Gateway feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Portkey AI Gateway 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 Portkey AI Gateway
English 中文 日本語 [!IMPORTANT] :rocket: Gateway 2.0 (Pre Release) Portkey's core enterprise gateway is merging into open source with our 2.0 release. You can try the pre release branch here. Read more about what's next for Portkey in our Series A announcement . 🆕 Portkey Models Open source LLM pricing for 2,300+ models across 40+ providers. Explore → AI Gateway Route to 250+ LLMs with 1 fast & friendly API Docs Enterprise Hosted Gateway Changelog API Reference The AI Gateway is designed for fast, reliable & secure routing to 1600+ language, vision, audio, and image models. It is a lightweight, open source, and…
read the full Portkey AI Gateway overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Dify or Portkey AI Gateway more popular?
Dify has 160,251 GitHub stars and Portkey AI Gateway has 13,302. Dify has the larger community by that measure.
Are Dify and Portkey AI Gateway free?
Both are open source. Dify has no licence declared in this registry, and Portkey AI Gateway is licensed under MIT. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Dify and Portkey AI Gateway?
Dify is written in Python and Portkey AI Gateway in TypeScript. 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 Portkey AI Gateway?
Choose Dify if you want the larger community (160,251 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose Portkey AI Gateway if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.