# n8n vs Dify

> Source: https://theagentsindex.com/compare/dify-vs-n8n (structured, researched, re-verified)

n8n and Dify are each other's primary alternative in this site's agent-platforms category, and both listings already point to the other. The comparison matters because they solve a similar-looking problem from opposite directions: n8n started in 2019 as a workflow-automation tool and grew AI-agent capability into an already-broad canvas, while Dify started in 2023 as an AI-app builder and grew workflow/orchestration capability around an AI-native core.

n8n's funding shows how far it has scaled. Founded by CEO Jan Oberhauser and headquartered in Berlin, it has raised over $248M across four rounds: a $1.5M seed (2020), a $12M Series A (2021, Felicis), a €55M/~$60M Series B (March 2025, Highland Europe) and a $180M Series C (October 2025, led by Accel with Nvidia's NVentures and Deutsche Telekom's T-Capital participating).

That round valued n8n at $2.5B, later revalued to $5.2B in May 2026 when SAP took a minority stake and struck a deal to embed n8n inside its own Joule Studio agent-building environment. n8n's Series B announcement cited more than 200,000 users and 3,000+ enterprise customers as of March 2025; by 2026 it cites 1,400+ enterprise customers and 1.7M monthly active builders.

Dify has taken a leaner path. Built by LangGenius under founder/CEO Luyu Zhang and headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area, with teams in Tokyo, Shanghai and Suzhou, it has one disclosed round: a $30M Series Pre-A (March 2026, led by HSG with GL Ventures, Alt-Alpha Capital, 5Y Capital, Mizuho Leaguer Investment and NYX Ventures participating). No valuation is disclosed.

Dify claims the 51st-most-starred project on GitHub and 1.4M+ machine deployments across 175+ countries. That's real traction, from a company with far less capital behind it than n8n.

The architecture difference tracks the founding story. n8n's core unit is the workflow: a visual canvas where 400+ pre-built app and API integrations sit alongside native AI-agent and LLM nodes. An agent is one node type among many, not the whole product — strong for ops teams who need an agent to actually take actions inside a broader automation, from updating a CRM to hitting an API.

Dify's core unit is the AI app instead. A built-in RAG pipeline (ingest, chunk, index, retrieve) and a model-agnostic agent runtime are first-class, backed by 50+ built-in tools and a plugin marketplace. That's smaller than n8n's general-purpose integration library, but it's the natural pick for building a knowledge-grounded chatbot, agent or RAG app rather than automating a business process end to end.

Neither is pure OSI open source. n8n is "fair-code": source-available and free to self-host, but not OSI-approved, so check terms before commercial resale. Dify's core is Apache-2.0-derived with its own extra conditions, multi-tenant and branding limits among them. Neither licence should be assumed unrestricted for every commercial use.

Both support Model Context Protocol. n8n ships an MCP Server Trigger node, so n8n itself can act as a server, plus an MCP Client node for calling other MCP servers. Dify can publish any built app as an MCP-compatible tool other agents call.

Pricing structures differ as much as the products. n8n's self-hosted Community Edition is permanently free. Its managed Cloud starts at €20/month (Starter: 2,500 workflow executions, 2,300 AI credits), rises to €50/month (Pro: 10,000 executions, up to 13,700 AI credits) and €667/month (Business: 40,000 executions, SSO/SAML/LDAP, Git version control), with custom Enterprise pricing above that. Re-confirmed live 2026-08-04 against n8n's own pricing page, unchanged from its prior verification.

Dify's self-hosted Community Edition is likewise permanently free. Its managed Cloud adds a genuinely free Sandbox tier (200 message credits/month, 1 workspace), then Professional at $590/year (~$49/month: 5,000 message credits/month, 3 members, 50 apps) and Team at $1,590/year (~$133/month: 10,000 message credits/month, 50 members, 200 apps). A self-hosted Enterprise edition adds SSO, RBAC and audit logs. Also re-confirmed live 2026-08-04, unchanged.

The practical entry cost is close: roughly €20–22/month against effectively $0 on Dify's Sandbox. But they meter different things. n8n caps workflow executions and AI credits; Dify caps message credits, documents and knowledge-base request rate. Which plan is cheaper for a given team depends on whether the bottleneck is workflow volume or AI conversation volume.

| Fact | n8n | Dify |
| --- | --- | --- |
| What it is | Source-available workflow automation with native AI-agent nodes and 500+ integrations. Self-hostable free, or on n8n Cloud from €20/month. | Open-source, visual platform for building production LLM apps and agents, self-host it or run it in the cloud. |
| Pricing | Free | Free |
| API | Yes | Yes — REST API for every app (Backend-as-a-Service), or publish any app as an MCP-compatible tool that other agents can call. |
| Tags | API · Claude · Enterprise · Free tier · GPT · No-code · Open models · Open source · Self-hosted | API · Claude · Enterprise · Free tier · GPT · No-code · Open models · Open source · Self-hosted |
| Best for | Ops and automation teams who want to build agentic workflows visually while keeping data on self-hosted infrastructure. | Developers and teams who want an open-source, self-hostable platform to build RAG apps and agents with full data control. |
| Full facts | https://theagentsindex.com/n8n.md | https://theagentsindex.com/dify.md |

## Verdict: n8n or Dify?

Pick n8n if your primary need is workflow automation with an agent as one capability among many. You want 400+ pre-built app integrations, fair-code self-hosting, and the maturity that comes with a $5.2B-valued, six-year-old platform serving 200,000+ users.

Pick Dify if you're building an AI-native app or agent from the ground up: a knowledge-grounded chatbot, a RAG-backed research tool, an agent you want to publish as an API or MCP tool. You want a platform whose RAG pipeline, model management and observability are the product, not an add-on bolted onto a broader automation tool.

Both are self-hostable at no cost, and both carry licence conditions short of unrestricted open source — read the fine print before commercial resale either way.

Skip n8n if your job is building an AI app instead of automating a business process. Skip Dify if you need n8n's much larger general-purpose integration library, or its longer enterprise track record.

## FAQ

**Are n8n and Dify direct competitors?**

Yes — both listings on this site already name the other as their primary alternative: n8n's alternatives rail describes Dify as an open-source alternative folding a built-in RAG pipeline into the same visual-canvas idea, while Dify's alternatives rail describes n8n as a fair-code workflow platform with a far larger integration library. Both are visual, self-hostable platforms for building agentic automations, competing for teams deciding how to build and run an AI agent — but from opposite starting points: workflow automation (n8n) vs AI-app building (Dify).

**Which is cheaper, n8n or Dify?**

Both have a permanently free, self-hosted Community Edition. On managed cloud, Dify's free Sandbox tier (200 message credits/month) costs nothing before you need more volume, while n8n's cheapest cloud plan is €20/month (Starter, 2,500 executions). Once you need more than the free tier, n8n's Pro is €50/month and Dify's Professional is $590/year (~$49/month) — close in headline cost but metering different things: n8n caps workflow executions and AI credits, Dify caps message credits and knowledge-base documents.

**Can I self-host both n8n and Dify?**

Yes, and self-hosting is free on both. Neither licence is pure OSI open source, though: n8n is "fair-code" (source-available, not OSI-approved — check terms before commercial resale), and Dify's core is Apache-2.0-derived with its own extra conditions around multi-tenant use and branding. Read the licence before reselling a hosted deployment commercially on either platform.

**Which is more established or better funded?**

n8n, by a wide margin. Founded in 2019, it has raised over $248M across four rounds — most recently a $180M Series C in October 2025 at a reported $2.5B valuation, revalued to $5.2B in May 2026 when SAP took a minority stake — and cited more than 200,000 users and 3,000+ enterprise customers in its Series B announcement. Dify, founded in 2023, has one disclosed round: a $30M Series Pre-A in March 2026, with no disclosed valuation. Dify's traction claims (51st-most-starred project on GitHub, 1.4M+ machine deployments) are real, but the company is younger and less capitalized.

**Does either support Model Context Protocol (MCP)?**

Yes, both. n8n ships an MCP Server Trigger node (letting other MCP clients call n8n) and an MCP Client node (letting n8n call other MCP servers); Dify lets you publish any app you build as an MCP-compatible tool that other agents can call.