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Issue 001 / A living technical almanac

Rankings never sold

Workflow & Productivity · Head-to-head

dify vs n8n

dify and n8n are both workflow & productivity. dify is Production-ready platform for agentic workflow development, while n8n is fair-code workflow automation platform with native AI capabilities. Combine visual building with custom code, self-host or cloud, 400+ inte…. Here's an independent, side-by-side look at how they compare — and which fits.

dify

Platform· Open source

Production-ready platform for agentic workflow development.

Visit dify
n8n

Platform· Open source

Fair-code workflow automation platform with native AI capabilities. Combine visual building with custom code, self-host or cloud, 400+ inte…

Visit n8n

Bottom line

dify and n8n are both open-source workflow & productivity you can self-host for free. They're closely matched, so the choice comes down to language, license, and which approach fits your workflow. Neither is universally better — pick by fit.

Side by side

Specdifyn8n
TypePlatformPlatform
ModelOpen sourceOpen source
PricingOpen sourceOpen source
GitHub stars148,338195,864
LanguageTypeScriptTypeScript
Last activityJul 2026Jul 2026

Choose dify if

Teams building LLM apps with a visual builder, RAG pipelines, and agent workflows..

Choose n8n if

Self-hostable workflow automation with native AI agent nodes and 400+ integrations..

About dify

Production-ready platform for agentic workflow development.

Full dify profile →

About n8n

Fair-code workflow automation platform with native AI capabilities. Combine visual building with custom code, self-host or cloud, 400+ integrations.

Full n8n profile →

Frequently asked

What's the main difference between dify and n8n?
Both are workflow & productivity built for a similar job; the differences are subtle — compare them on adoption, language, and license in the table above.
Is dify or n8n better?
Neither is universally better. dify is the stronger fit for Teams building LLM apps with a visual builder, RAG pipelines, and agent workflows; n8n for Self-hostable workflow automation with native AI agent nodes and 400+ integrations. Use the side-by-side specs to decide by your own constraints.
Is dify or n8n free?
dify is free to run and self-host; n8n is free to run and self-host. Both are free to self-host — you only pay for the infrastructure and any model or API usage.
Which is more popular, dify or n8n?
By GitHub stars — a proxy for open-source adoption — n8n is ahead (196k vs 148k). Stars measure attention, not necessarily the better fit for you.
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