Dify vs Orq.ai (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Orq.ai grades higher than Dify: 2.6 against 2.2 out of 4.0.
Checked Oct 5, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 · graded Oct 10, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA
Dify grades higher on features. Orq.ai grades higher on value for money and the free plan. They get the same grade on ease of use and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Dify
Open-source platform for building AI agents and agentic workflows
Orq.ai
AI gateway with observability, governance and managed agents
Which one is for you
Pick Dify if
- Fits if your team wants agents and chatbots that answer from your own documents
- Works for teams that have to self-host or keep everything in a private cloud
Look elsewhere if
- Pricey if you work alone: the first paid step is $59 a month for a 3-member workspace, and Team is $159
- Tight if you're staying on Sandbox, with 1 member, 5 apps and 200 message credits that don't refill
- Not for you if you need SSO or more than one workspace, which are Enterprise only, at a price not published
- Watch out: the free Community Edition means hosting it on Docker yourself, with one workspace and Dify's own license
- Skip it if you want a phone or desktop app, as Dify is a web app
Pick Orq.ai if
- Fits if you want one endpoint and one bill across several model providers
- Works for developers who need request logs and budgets before they pay for anything
Look elsewhere if
- Watch out: using Orq.ai's own keys adds a 4.5% platform fee on model traffic
- Pricey if you outgrow the caps: €7 per 100k spans, €3 per GB and €35 per extra seat
- Tight if you need SSO or roles, which are a €300 a month Teams add-on
- Skip it if you want no-code, since you integrate it through an API
- Watch out: pay-as-you-go keeps data for 30 days and limits you to 100 requests a minute
How we grade them
| 2.2GPADifyFair | 2.6GPAOrq.aiGood | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | DThe first paid step is $59 a month per workspace, or $590 for the year, which is in the dearest tenth for this category. Three members share it, so split three ways it's bearable; on your own it's dear. Team is $159 a month. | BPay-as-you-go carries no platform fee, though extra seats are €35 each and usage is billed past the included amounts. Prices are in euros. |
| Free plan and trial | CSandbox is free but you'll hit the end of it fast: 1 member, 5 apps, 50 knowledge documents and 200 message credits that never refill, after which you bring your own model keys. The real free option is the Community Edition, hosted by you on Docker. | B10 seats, 100k spans, 5 GB and 500 agent runs a month are included, with 30-day retention and 100 requests a minute. Enough for one developer, tight for a product. |
| Features | BIt covers the job: a visual canvas for workflows, agents set up by chatting or by hand, pipelines that turn files, websites and drives into a searchable knowledge base with retrieval testing, and apps published as web apps, embeds, APIs or MCP tools with logs to review. | CGateway, MCP gateway, observability, agents and guardrails. SSO and fine-grained roles cost €300 a month extra on the self-serve plan. |
| Ease of use | CNo code, but it is a builder: a canvas to learn, a Marketplace to install from, and your own model keys to add once the 200 credits are gone. No rating on record to go by. | CNo store rating on record. It is a developer service: you wire in API keys and point your code at the endpoint. |
| Platforms and integrations | BA web app, and what you build goes out as an API endpoint, an embed or an MCP tool. The Marketplace adds model providers, tools and data sources. No phone or desktop app on the listing. | BWeb console and an API, with OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Mistral, Claude Code, Cursor, Codex and Okta listed. No desktop or phone app. |
| Best for | building your own AI apps on your own data | one gateway for many AI models |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Dify and Orq.ai. How we grade
Price against what you get
Dify starts at $49.17 a month when paid by the year and scores 2.7 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Orq.ai starts at about $39.10 a month for each person and scores 2.3.
Dify scores higher, and starts $10.07 a month higher: the question is whether the extra is worth that to you. Of the other AI agents on the chart, 8 score higher than Dify for less, and 29 score higher than Orq.ai for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- Dify is open source and self-hostable, according to its own site.
- Dify also covers workflow automation and no-code.
- Orq.ai also covers reports.
At a glance
| Dify | Orq.ai | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free plan |
| Starts at | $590 per workspace / year (Professional); $59 billed monthly | €35 per extra seat / month beyond the 10 included, plus usage |
| Free plan | Sandbox plan: 1 member, 5 apps, 50 knowledge documents, 50 MB of knowledge storage and 200 one-time message credits. The self-hosted Community Edition is also free. | Pay-as-you-go has no platform fee: 10 AI Studio seats, 100k spans, 5 GB processed data and 500 agent runs a month included. |
| Free trial | None listed | None listed |
| Web | ||
| Made by | LangGenius, Inc. | Orq.ai |
| Price read from | dify.ai | orq.ai |
| Checked | Oct 5, 2026 | Nov 13, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Dify
- The Sandbox plan's 200 message credits are a one-time grant; after that you supply your own model API keys.
- Cloud plans are priced per workspace with member caps: 1 on Sandbox, 3 on Professional and 50 on Team.
- SSO, multiple workspaces and a commercial license are part of the Enterprise edition only.
- The free Community Edition is limited to a single workspace and uses Dify's own Apache-2.0-derived license.
Orq.ai
- Prices are shown in euros. Model traffic is billed at provider rates, and the platform adds a 4.5% fee when you use Orq.ai's keys.
- Beyond the included amounts: €7 per 100k spans, €3 per GB processed, €0.01 per agent run with tools, €35 per AI Studio seat.
- SSO, SAML or OIDC and fine-grained RBAC are a €300 a month Teams add-on, and included on Enterprise.
- Pay-as-you-go keeps data for 30 days with a 100 requests per minute rate limit.
Key features
Dify
- Workflow Studio
- A visual canvas for workflows and chatflows, where blocks define how an app retrieves data, makes decisions, calls tools, asks for human input and completes a task.
- Agents
- Agents are built by chatting or by manual configuration with skills, tools and knowledge, then used as an app, embedded in a website or reused as a node inside a workflow.
- Knowledge pipeline
- Repeatable pipelines extract, clean, chunk and index files, websites, online documents and drives into a knowledge base, with retrieval testing before it is connected to an app.
- Marketplace and plugins
- Model providers, tools, data sources and MCP integrations are installed from the Marketplace or defined yourself, and reused across the apps in a workspace.
- Publishing and monitoring
- Apps ship as hosted web apps, API endpoints, embeds or MCP-compatible tools, with logs, feedback, annotations, latency and usage data to review.
- Cloud, enterprise or self-hosted
- Use Dify Cloud, deploy the Enterprise edition in your own VPC or on Kubernetes with a Helm chart, or self-host the Community Edition with Docker.
Orq.ai
- AI Gateway
- One OpenAI- and Anthropic-compatible API for 500+ models from 30+ providers, with fallbacks, retries, caching and load balancing.
- MCP Gateway
- Routes calls to remote MCP servers under the same policies as model traffic, and traces each tool call.
- Observability
- Every request becomes a trace with cost, tokens, latency and payloads, with OpenTelemetry ingestion and alerts.
- Managed agents
- An agent runtime with sub-agents, tools, knowledge bases, memory stores, prompt management, evaluators and scheduled runs.
- Governance and guardrails
- Budgets, PII redaction, guardrail rules and model restrictions, with audit logs, EU hosting and EU AI Act tooling on the higher tier.
Plans
Dify
SandboxFree
1 member, 5 apps, 50 knowledge documents, 50 MB of knowledge storage, 200 one-time message credits and 30 days of log history.
CommunityFree
Open-source edition you self-host with Docker: all core features in the public repository, a single workspace and community support.
Professional$59
per workspace / month ($590 per year billed annually)
3 team members, 50 apps, 5,000 message credits a month, 500 knowledge documents, 5 GB of storage and 20,000 trigger events a month.
Team$159
per workspace / month ($1,590 per year billed annually)
50 team members, 200 apps, 10,000 message credits a month, 1,000 knowledge documents, 20 GB of storage and unlimited trigger events.
EnterpriseCustom
Self-hosted or VPC deployment with a commercial license, multiple workspaces, SSO, advanced security controls and professional support.
Orq.ai
Pay-as-you-go€0
Unlimited requests with your own provider keys; 4.5% fee on credits when using Orq.ai's keys. Extra spans, data, seats and agent runs are metered.
EnterpriseCustom
Adds AI governance, audit logs, on-prem and VPC options, SOC 2 report, custom DPA, uptime SLA and Slack or Teams support.
Ways to pay less
Dify
- Annual discount
Save 17% with annual billing
Dify's pricing page lists a 17% saving for annual billing: Professional is $590 a year instead of $59 a month, and Team is $1,590 a year instead of $159 a month.
- Education
Free Professional plan for students and educators
Verified students, teachers and school staff aged 18 or over can use the Yearly Professional plan at no cost, re-verified each year. Message credits stay at the Sandbox level of 200.
Orq.ai
- Startups
Startup, academic, NGO and open-source discounts
The pay-as-you-go plan notes discounts for startups, academic users, NGOs and open-source projects; terms are not shown on the page.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Dify or Orq.ai?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Dify starts at $590 per workspace / year (Professional); $59 billed monthly, and Orq.ai starts at €35 per extra seat / month beyond the 10 included, plus usage. One is priced for each person and the other is not, so which costs less depends on how many of you use it.
Which has a free plan, Dify or Orq.ai?
As of Nov 13, 2026, both Dify and Orq.ai have a free plan.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.