head to head · open source
Dify vs R2R
Dify has 156,215 GitHub stars, 24,668 forks, 1,067 open issues and last shipped today. R2R has 7,998 stars, 647 forks, 126 open issues and last shipped 11 months ago. Dify leads on adoption by 1,853% (156,215 vs 7,998 stars). Dify is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; R2R is written in Python under MIT. Dify has attracted 16% as many forks as stars, R2R 8%. 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 | R2R | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 156K | ★ 8.0K |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2025-11-07 |
| Forks | ⑂ 25K | ⑂ 647 |
| 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 R2R if
- You want the R2R feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and R2R 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 R2R
R2R is an MIT licensed, Python based retrieval system from SciPhi AI that gives developers a RESTful API for agentic Retrieval Augmented Generation over their own documents, with official Python and JavaScript clients.
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Frequently asked questions
Is Dify or R2R more popular?
Dify has 156,215 GitHub stars and R2R has 7,998. Dify has the larger community by that measure.
Are Dify and R2R free?
Both are open source. Dify has no licence declared in this registry, and R2R is licensed under MIT. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Dify and R2R?
Dify is written in TypeScript and R2R 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 R2R?
Choose Dify if you want the larger community (156,215 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose R2R if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.