AgenticOS vs Dify

Build the agent.
Bring the team.

Choose the workspace around the agent: shared Projects, explicit workflows, reusable knowledge and work people can inspect.

See it with your team Explore the product

Apache-2.0 · self-hosted · built on Pydantic AI

The Finance Analyst’s capability cards beside its draft test panel, ready for a sample question. — Real AgenticOS interface · illustrative demo data

Work together

People and agents in shared Projects

Build around your work

Knowledge, tools, workflows and apps

Choose how it runs

Your infrastructure and model providers

AgenticOS vs Dify

Dify builds LLM apps and workflows on a visual canvas, self-hosted or in Dify Cloud. AgenticOS builds agents from instructions, capabilities, knowledge and a budget, and ships the controls a company asks for in the open-source product.

Jump to the side-by-side comparison

What you could put to work

Pick a job.
See it in action.

A useful agent should leave you with something you can use. Explore three examples from the AgenticOS product.

Research & operations

Ask the specialists. Get one brief.

Let a lead agent bring together research and analysis from specialist agents. In this example, the brief names its sources and flags the missing financial inputs instead of inventing a margin.

1.Define the question
2.Connect specialist agents
3.Review the combined brief

Explore shared Projects

A Chief of Staff agent's pricing review brief, written from what the Sales Researcher and Finance Analyst agents found. — AgenticOS product capture · illustrative demo data. Inspect the output against your own task and sources. View full-size screen ↗

Make the platform fit the work

Build for your team.
Run it your way.

Multi-tenant without a commercial licence

Dify's licence forbids operating a multi-tenant environment without written permission, where one tenant is one workspace, and changing the logo in its frontend. AgenticOS is Apache-2.0: one deployment can serve every department, subsidiary or client, under your own brand.

The controls an enterprise asks for

Dify lists SSO, custom roles and multiple workspaces as Enterprise features. AgenticOS ships single sign-on, directory group mappings, roles with per-resource grants, a tamper-evident audit log and retention per data class in every deployment.

A budget that stops the next model call

Dify's documentation describes no spend cap enforced before model calls in the Community Edition. AgenticOS checks each agent's budget and the organization's cap before each model request, and a failed run still records its cost.

Approval on the tool, not only in the flow

Dify's Human Input node pauses a workflow and sends a form, and the request closes after the first response. In AgenticOS an approval is set per capability, per tool and per MCP connection; the run parks, the people you choose are alerted, and a second decision on a decided approval is refused.

The software is Apache-2.0. Your team still owns hosting, model usage, updates and the policies it configures. Self-hosting alone does not mean zero outbound data.

The Approvals tab of the Activity page, with approved, rejected and expired example requests and their decision history. — Approval requests and their recorded decisions stay in one place. Product capture with illustrative data.

At a glance

Dify and AgenticOS, side by side.

How you build
Dify
A visual canvas of workflow, chatflow and agent nodes
AgenticOS
Versioned agents plus visual workflows with typed steps, branches and loops
Licence
Dify
Apache 2.0 with added conditions on multi-tenant use and the logo
AgenticOS
Apache-2.0
Tenancy
Dify
One workspace; several workspaces are Enterprise
AgenticOS
Many organizations in one deployment
Roles
Dify
Four built-in roles; custom roles are Enterprise
AgenticOS
Six roles, 33 permissions and per-resource grants
Sign-in
Dify
Email; SSO is Enterprise
AgenticOS
Email, Google, OIDC SSO, LDAP and Kerberos
Audit
Dify
Enterprise
AgenticOS
Tamper-evident audit log with CSV and JSONL export
Spend control
Dify
Provider billing, or Cloud message credits
AgenticOS
A monthly budget per agent and per organization, checked before each model request
Human approval
Dify
A Human Input node in a workflow
AgenticOS
Per capability, per tool and per MCP connection; the run waits until someone decides
Kubernetes
Dify
Community Helm charts; official high availability is Enterprise
AgenticOS
Docker Compose on one host, with an external Postgres and more hosts documented; no Kubernetes manifests

Dify compared with AgenticOS
Area	Dify	AgenticOS
How you build	A visual canvas of workflow, chatflow and agent nodes	Versioned agents plus visual workflows with typed steps, branches and loops
Licence	Apache 2.0 with added conditions on multi-tenant use and the logo	Apache-2.0
Tenancy	One workspace; several workspaces are Enterprise	Many organizations in one deployment
Roles	Four built-in roles; custom roles are Enterprise	Six roles, 33 permissions and per-resource grants
Sign-in	Email; SSO is Enterprise	Email, Google, OIDC SSO, LDAP and Kerberos
Audit	Enterprise	Tamper-evident audit log with CSV and JSONL export
Spend control	Provider billing, or Cloud message credits	A monthly budget per agent and per organization, checked before each model request
Human approval	A Human Input node in a workflow	Per capability, per tool and per MCP connection; the run waits until someone decides
Kubernetes	Community Helm charts; official high availability is Enterprise	Docker Compose on one host, with an external Postgres and more hosts documented; no Kubernetes manifests

Choose the operating model

Choose Dify when it fits the job.

Your team thinks in flowcharts and wants a visual canvas of nodes, loops and branches.
You need its marketplace plugins, its hybrid search with rerank or its observability integrations.
One workspace is enough, or the Enterprise edition's terms suit you.

Choose AgenticOS

Run the platform. Make it your own.

Your team wants to operate the platform and choose its infrastructure and model providers.
You want shared Projects, configurable specialist agents and explicit workflows in one workspace.
You want open-source software you can inspect and extend, and accept responsibility for operating it.

Before changing your setup

Both self-host and both handle document retrieval, so the choice is less about features than about the licence and the controls you need. Run the same handbook questions in both, then create a second tenant and give an agent a budget of a few cents, and compare what each allows.

FAQ

What people ask before they switch.

Is AgenticOS an open-source alternative to Dify?

Yes. Both self-host and both handle document retrieval. AgenticOS is Apache-2.0 with no multi-tenant or logo conditions, and it includes SSO, roles, budgets, approvals and a tamper-evident audit log without an enterprise edition.

Can Dify run as a multi-tenant service?

Dify's licence requires written permission to operate a multi-tenant environment, where one tenant is one workspace. AgenticOS serves many organizations from one deployment under Apache-2.0.

Does AgenticOS have a visual workflow builder like Dify?

Yes. AgenticOS includes a visual workflow builder with typed steps, branches, loops and published versions. Compare the nodes and integrations your task requires with Dify’s ecosystem.

Which one costs less to run?

Dify Community Edition and AgenticOS are both free to self-host; you pay for models and infrastructure. Dify's Enterprise features are priced by its sales team. In AgenticOS those controls are already in the open-source product.

Make the choice on your own task

One useful agent.
Start there.

Bring a handbook question, a recurring report or a small research task. Build one agent and decide whether this is the workspace you want to run.

Book a working demo Explore the source

Try it on your own infrastructure

Start with the installation guide and a model connection. No software licence fee; infrastructure and model usage are separate.

Terminal

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/vstorm-co/agenticos/main/scripts/quickstart.sh | bash

Read the installation guide

Comparison by Vstorm, the team building AgenticOS. Vendor sources checked 21 October 2026.

Documented capabilities, not a head-to-head benchmark. Read the sources and comparison scope.

Other comparisons