Question 1

Activepieces or Dify: which should a small business choose?

Accepted Answer

Choose Activepieces if you want: fewer license conditions (Open core vs Custom / conditional) and simpler deploy (one container vs a multi-container stack). Choose Dify if you want: larger community (159k vs 25.2k GitHub stars). Activepieces publishes no official RAM figure, so we cannot compare hosting cost directly.

Question 2

Which is cheaper to self-host, Activepieces or Dify?

Accepted Answer

Activepieces: not estimated (no official RAM figure). Dify: from €19.99/mo. Our estimate is the cheapest Hetzner Cloud plan that meets each project's official RAM and vCPU figure; it covers the server only.

Question 3

How much hardware do Activepieces and Dify need?

Accepted Answer

Activepieces: not published. Dify: minimum 2 vCPU · 4 GB RAM.

Question 4

What is the license difference between Activepieces and Dify?

Accepted Answer

Activepieces: MIT (core) + Activepieces Enterprise License (ee directories) (Open core). Everything outside packages/ee and packages/server/api/src/app/ee is MIT. Code in those directories needs a commercial license. Dify: Dify Open Source License (modified Apache-2.0) (Custom / conditional). Commercial use is allowed, including as a backend for your own apps. Extra conditions: you may not run a multi-tenant service (one tenant = one workspace) without written permission, and you may not remove or modify the Dify logo or copyright in the frontend. This is a summary, not legal advice.

Question 5

Is Activepieces or Dify more actively maintained?

Accepted Answer

Activepieces: Active, last commit Oct 22, 2026. Dify: Active, last commit Oct 22, 2026. GitHub data refreshed Oct 22, 2026.

Question 6

Which is easier to deploy, Activepieces or Dify?

Accepted Answer

Activepieces installs via Docker (single container, embedded DB) (single container); Dify via Docker Compose (multi-container stack). Activepieces lists 2 known gotchas and Dify lists 2; see each app page.

	Activepieces	Dify
Category	Workflow automation with AI	AI app & agent builders
What it is	Open-source Zapier alternative with AI agents, MCP and human-in-the-loop steps.	Visual platform for building LLM apps, RAG chatbots, agents and workflows.
License	MIT (core) + Activepieces Enterprise License (ee directories)	Dify Open Source License (modified Apache-2.0)
License type	Open core	Custom / conditional
License conditions	Everything outside packages/ee and packages/server/api/src/app/ee is MIT. Code in those directories needs a commercial license.	Commercial use is allowed, including as a backend for your own apps. Extra conditions: you may not run a multi-tenant service (one tenant = one workspace) without written permission, and you may not remove or modify the Dify logo or copyright in the frontend.
Status	Active	Active
GitHub stars	25.2k	159k
Last commit	Oct 22, 2026	Oct 22, 2026
Latest release	0.92.3	1.17.1
Minimum hardware	Not published	2 vCPU · 4 GB RAM
Recommended hardware	Not published	Not published
RAM measured by us	Not tested yet	Not tested yet
GPU	Not required / not stated	Not required / not stated
Est. server cost	Not estimated	from €19.99/mo
Deploy method	Docker (single container, embedded DB)	Docker Compose
Known gotchas	2 listed	2 listed
Telemetry	On by default	On by default
Calls home by default	Not documented	Yes, by default
SSO (OIDC / SAML / LDAP)	Paid / enterprise only (SAML paid)	Paid / enterprise only
Audit log	Paid / enterprise only	Not documented
RBAC	Paid / enterprise only	Basic free, more in paid plan
Details	Full Activepieces guide →	Full Dify guide →

Activepieces vs Dify

Short answer