n8n vs Dify
These two are the usual shortlist when a team wants a visual builder it can host itself. Both are classed low-code, both can run on your own infrastructure, and both are routinely described as open source. That last description is wrong for both, and it is the most consequential thing on this page, because teams choose these products specifically to avoid depending on a vendor's licence.
| Criteria | n8n for workflow automation: AI agents, code flexibility, and self-hosted deployment. | Open-source LLM app builder with a visual RAG pipeline and prompt orchestration. |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | ||
| Starting price | From $20.00 | From $49.17 |
| Capabilities | ||
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | No | No |
| API available | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hostable | Yes | Yes |
Our verdict
Neither is open source, and both are recorded here as openSource false after direct checking. n8n's own term for its licence is fair-code, which is not an OSI-approved open-source licence. Dify's site describes itself as source-available while its repository carries Apache 2.0 with additional conditions, which is likewise not plain Apache 2.0. If your requirement is genuinely a licence requirement rather than a hosting requirement, read both licences before committing; if it is a hosting requirement, both satisfy it and the decision moves to price and shape. n8n lists EUR 20 per month. Dify's paid entry is USD 590 per workspace per year, which the catalogue stores as its monthly equivalent, so compare the annual commitment rather than the monthly figure. Both expose an API and both offer a free tier.