Dify vs promptfoo
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted self-hosted ai options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Not the right match-up?
Dify
Open-source platform for building production LLM apps
VS
promptfoo
Test, evaluate, and red-team LLM applications
| Feature | Dify | promptfoo |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Self-Hosted AI | Self-Hosted AI |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Language | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 4,096 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | docker, kubernetes, helm | bare-metal, binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 151,746 | ★ 24,063 |
| First released | 2023 | 2023 |
| Replaces | OpenAI Assistants, Vertex AI Agent Builder | LangSmith |
Why pick each one
Choose Dify if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Kubernetes-ready with Helm charts available
- Mature project with 151.7k GitHub stars
Choose promptfoo if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- Mature project with 24.1k GitHub stars
- Written in TypeScript
Frequently asked questions
Is Dify or promptfoo better?
Neither is universally better. Dify has the larger community, while promptfoo is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Dify and promptfoo free and open-source?
Yes. Dify is licensed under Apache-2.0 and promptfoo under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Dify and promptfoo with Docker?
Dify: yes. promptfoo: check the project docs for container support.