Dify
: How to use it, features, and the business problems it solves
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What is Dify?
Dify is an open-source LLM app development platform for building, deploying, and operating AI apps, agents, and workflows with no-code/low-code. You can assemble chatbots, RAG, and multi-step workflows visually, and switch between the major providers' models. It supports both a cloud edition and self-hosting (OSS). Cloud pricing is Sandbox free / Professional $590 per year / Team $1,590 per year / Enterprise custom (17% off with annual billing), and the self-hosted Community edition is free.
Business problems it solves
About "Dify"
What is Dify
Dify is an open-source LLM app development platform for building, deploying, and operating AI apps, agents, and workflows with no-code / low-code. You can assemble chatbots, RAG (answers grounded in your internal data), and multi-step AI workflows on a visual canvas. In addition to a cloud edition, it supports self-hosting the source code on your own infrastructure, and it isn't locked to a specific AI model — you can switch between the major providers' models.
Build AI apps and agents visually
At its core, Dify lets you handle everything from prompt management to RAG, tool integrations, and multi-step workflows on a single canvas. Even non-engineers can prototype and improve AI apps, and the apps you build can be published as an API or a web app. Because it's open source, it's also easy to run and customize in your own environment.
How to use it
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Choose your environment
Pick the cloud edition to get started quickly, or self-hosting (OSS) to manage your data yourself.
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Choose an app type
Select what you want to build from chatbots, agents, workflows, text generation, and more.
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Connect knowledge and tools
Import your internal documents to set up RAG, and connect external tools and MCP.
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Assemble and test
Wire up prompts and processing in a visual workflow and verify how it behaves.
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Publish and operate
Publish as an API or web app, and continuously improve quality with logs and annotations.
Features
01App building
Assemble AI visually.
- Workflows — build multi-step processing visually
- Agents / chatbots — autonomous apps that use tools
- Model-agnostic — switch between major providers' models
02Knowledge and RAG
Answers grounded in your own data.
- Knowledge ingestion — make internal documents searchable
- RAG — generate answers grounded in evidence
- Tool and MCP integration — connect external APIs and tools
03Deployment and operations
Build it, publish it, improve it.
- API / web app publishing — distribute your app right away
- Logs and annotations — evaluate outputs and improve
- Self-hosting — run on your own infrastructure (OSS)
Pricing
You can choose between the cloud edition and self-hosting (OSS). Cloud is 17% cheaper with annual billing (prices per workspace, per year, as of August 2026).
| Plan | Price | Highlights |
|---|---|---|
| Sandbox | Free | A free tier to try it out |
| Professional (popular) | $590/year | 5,000 message credits/month, 3 members, 50 apps, 500 knowledge items |
| Team | $1,590/year | 10,000 message credits/month, 50 members, 200 apps, 1,000 knowledge items |
| Enterprise | Custom | Commercial license, multi-workspace management, SSO, SLA |
A self-hosted edition that runs the source code on your own infrastructure is also offered (the Community edition is open source and free).
How it differs from other AI app development tools
Dify stands out for being open source and letting you build everything from RAG to workflows on a no-code visual canvas. Its aims differ from frameworks for building agents in code and from general-purpose business automation tools.
| Dify | Mastra | Make | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Form | OSS LLM app dev platform (visual) | Agent foundation built in code | General-purpose business automation (iPaaS) |
| Strength | No-code RAG, workflows, and publishing | Flexible implementation for developers | Automated integration across many SaaS |
| Best for | Teams that want to build AI apps quickly | Engineers | People who want to automate business processes |
If you want to build agents in code, Mastra is a good point of comparison; for business automation that connects many SaaS, Make.
The information on this page is based on what was published on the official site as of August 2026. Please check the official site for the latest specifications and pricing.
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