Dify vs n8n
A side-by-side comparison of capabilities, autonomy, integrations, and pricing to help you choose.
Short answer: choose Dify if you want open-source platform for building llm apps and agentic workflows (Supervised agent, freemium); choose n8n if you want fair-code workflow automation with built-in ai agent nodes, self-hostable (Supervised agent, freemium).
| Dify | n8n | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Open-source platform for building LLM apps and agentic workflows | Fair-code workflow automation with built-in AI agent nodes, self-hostable |
| Type | platform | platform |
| Autonomy | Supervised agent | Supervised agent |
| Pricing | freemium · Self-host free; Dify Cloud has a free sandbox plan | freemium · Self-hosted free; Cloud Starter EUR 20/mo |
| Best for | developers, smb, mid-market | developers, smb, mid-market, enterprise |
| Deployment | self-hosted, saas, on-prem | saas, self-hosted, on-prem, api |
| Modalities | text, api | text, code, api, email |
| Models | model-agnostic, open-source | model-agnostic, gpt, claude, open-source |
| Protocols | function-calling, rest-api, mcp | mcp, function-calling, rest-api |
| Integrations | OpenAI, Anthropic, Mistral, Llama, Kubernetes, Docker | OpenAI, Anthropic, Slack, Google Sheets, Postgres, HTTP/REST |
| Capabilities | 4 documented | 4 documented |
Dify
- +Open source and self-hostable (Docker, Kubernetes) with no vendor lock-in
- +Combines workflows, RAG, agents, model management, and observability in one stack
- +Broad model support including any OpenAI-API-compatible endpoint
- -A building platform: you design and operate the apps and their guardrails
- -Self-hosting at scale requires infrastructure expertise
n8n
- +Genuinely flexible: visual no-code builder plus inline JavaScript/Python and HTTP-to-any-API
- +Self-hostable community edition is free with unlimited executions, giving full data control
- +Strong native AI: agent nodes, MCP support, model-agnostic LLM connections built into workflows
- -Not truly open source: the Sustainable Use License restricts commercial use such as reselling n8n as a service
- -Execution-based cloud pricing can balloon for high-frequency workflows
Which should you choose?
Dify is open-source platform for building llm apps and agentic workflows, best for developers, smb, mid-market. n8n is fair-code workflow automation with built-in ai agent nodes, self-hostable, best for developers, smb, mid-market, enterprise. The right choice depends on the autonomy level you want, your existing integrations, and your budget, all compared above.