head to head · open source
Dify vs langchain
Dify has 160,251 GitHub stars, 25,336 forks, 1,067 open issues and last shipped yesterday. langchain has 148,892 stars, 25,031 forks, 492 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Dify leads on adoption by 8% (160,251 vs 148,892 stars). Dify is written in Python under a custom or non-standard licence; langchain is written in Python under MIT. Dify has attracted 16% as many forks as stars, langchain 17%. langchain was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (ai), 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 | langchain | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 160K | ★ 149K |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 25K | ⑂ 25K |
| 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 langchain if
- You want the langchain feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and langchain 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 langchain
The agent engineering platform. LangChain is a framework for building agents and LLM powered applications. It helps you chain together interoperable components and third party integrations to simplify AI application development — all while future proofing decisions as the underlying technology evolves. [!TIP] Just getting started? Check out Deep Agents — a higher level package built on LangChain for agents that have built in capabilities for common usage patterns such as planning, subagents, file system usage, and more. Quickstart If you're looking for more advanced customization or agent orchestration, check…
read the full langchain overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Dify or langchain more popular?
Dify has 160,251 GitHub stars and langchain has 148,892. Dify has the larger community by that measure.
Are Dify and langchain free?
Both are open source. Dify has no licence declared in this registry, and langchain is licensed under MIT. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Dify and langchain?
Dify is written in Python and langchain 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 langchain?
Choose Dify if you want the larger community (160,251 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose langchain if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.