head to head · open source
Dify vs zcf
Dify has 160,251 GitHub stars, 25,336 forks, 1,067 open issues and last shipped yesterday. zcf has 6,074 stars, 419 forks, 42 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. Dify leads on adoption by 2,538% (160,251 vs 6,074 stars). Dify is written in Python under a custom or non-standard licence; zcf is written in TypeScript under MIT. Dify has attracted 16% as many forks as stars, zcf 7%. Dify was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 4 topic tags (agent, ai, claude, gpt), 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 | zcf | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 160K | ★ 6.1K |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | Python | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-29 |
| Forks | ⑂ 25K | ⑂ 419 |
| 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 zcf if
- You want the zcf feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and zcf 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 zcf
[![npm version][npm version src]][npm version href] [![npm downloads][npm downloads src]][npm downloads href] [![License][license src]][license href] [![Claude Code][claude code src]][claude code href] [![codecov][codecov src]][codecov href] [![JSDocs][jsdocs src]][jsdocs href] [![Ask DeepWiki][deepwiki src]][deepwiki href] ZCF Zero Config Code Flow English 中文 日本語 Changelog ✨ Full Documentation : ZCF Docs Zero config, one click setup for Claude Code & Codex with bilingual support, intelligent agent system and personalized AI assistant 🚀 Quick Start Recommended: npx zcf opens the interactive menu — pick what you…
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Frequently asked questions
Is Dify or zcf more popular?
Dify has 160,251 GitHub stars and zcf has 6,074. Dify has the larger community by that measure.
Are Dify and zcf free?
Both are open source. Dify has no licence declared in this registry, and zcf is licensed under MIT. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Dify and zcf?
Dify is written in Python and zcf 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 zcf?
Choose Dify if you want the larger community (160,251 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose zcf if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.