head to head · open source
Dify vs UltraRAG
Dify has 160,251 GitHub stars, 25,336 forks, 1,067 open issues and last shipped yesterday. UltraRAG has 5,738 stars, 458 forks, 11 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Dify leads on adoption by 2,693% (160,251 vs 5,738 stars). Dify is written in Python under a custom or non-standard licence; UltraRAG is written in Python under Apache-2.0. Dify has attracted 16% as many forks as stars, UltraRAG 8%. Dify was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (deepseek, gpt, 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 | UltraRAG | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 160K | ★ 5.7K |
| License | Custom / other | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 25K | ⑂ 458 |
| 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 UltraRAG if
- You want the UltraRAG 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 UltraRAG 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 UltraRAG
Less Code, Lower Barrier, Faster Deployment 简体中文 English Latest News 🔥 [2026.01.23] 🎉 UltraRAG 3.0 Released: Say no to "black box" development—make every line of reasoning logic clearly visible 👉 📖 Blog [2026.01.20] 🎉 AgentCPM Report Model Released! DeepResearch is finally localized: 8B on device writing agent AgentCPM Report is open sourced 👉 🤗 Model Previous News [2025.11.11] 🎉 UltraRAG 2.1 Released: Enhanced knowledge ingestion & multimodal support, with a more complete unified evaluation system! [2025.09.23] New daily RAG paper digest, updated every day 👉 📖 Papers [2025.09.09] Released a…
read the full UltraRAG overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Dify or UltraRAG more popular?
Dify has 160,251 GitHub stars and UltraRAG has 5,738. Dify has the larger community by that measure.
Are Dify and UltraRAG free?
Both are open source. Dify has no licence declared in this registry, and UltraRAG is licensed under Apache-2.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Dify and UltraRAG?
Dify is written in Python and UltraRAG 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 UltraRAG?
Choose Dify if you want the larger community (160,251 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose UltraRAG if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.