Dify and Stack AI are both no-code/low-code platforms for building and deploying AI agents and workflows, but they differ in openness and pricing structure:…
| Dify | Stack AI | |
|---|---|---|
| Primary category | AI | AI |
| Rating | Not documented | Not documented |
| Pricing model | Freemium/Subscription + Open Source self-hosted | freemium |
| Starting price | Free (Sandbox); self-hosted Community edition also free | Free (Enterprise plan custom-priced) |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | Not documented |
| Platforms | Web | Not documented |
| Team collaboration | Not documented | Not documented |
| AI features | Yes | Yes |
| Public API | Yes | Not documented |
Open Source & Licensing
Dify: Dify's Community Edition is open source and self-hostable via Docker Compose at no cost, released under a modified Apache 2.0 license that requires a commercial license only for offering Dify as multi-tenant SaaS.
Stack AI: Stack AI does not document an open-source or self-hosted-free option; its deployment flexibility (VPC, on-premise) is offered as part of its commercial Enterprise tier rather than a free open-source release.
Open-source availability lets developers inspect, modify, and self-host at zero licensing cost, which matters for teams wanting full control or avoiding vendor lock-in.
Pricing Structure
Dify: Dify publishes tiered Cloud pricing: Sandbox (free, 200 message credits), Professional ($590/year, 5,000 message credits/month), and Team ($1,590/year, 10,000 message credits/month), plus a free self-hosted Community Edition.
Stack AI: Stack AI publishes only a Free plan (500 runs/month, 2 projects, 1 seat) with no documented mid-tier — pricing jumps straight to custom Enterprise.
A published mid-tier lets growing teams predict costs as usage scales, while a straight jump to custom Enterprise pricing means budget conversations require a sales call earlier.
Industry-Specific Templates
Dify: Dify's Marketplace provides access to model providers, tools, data sources, and MCP-compatible integrations, but does not document dedicated vertical-industry templates.
Stack AI: Stack AI offers pre-built workflows specifically for finance, legal, healthcare, customer service, and IT.
Ready-made vertical templates reduce time-to-value for business teams that don't want to build agent logic from scratch.
Knowledge/RAG Pipeline Depth
Dify: Dify includes a dedicated Knowledge pipeline for document processing and indexing to build retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) knowledge bases, with storage tiers up to 20GB on the Team plan.
Stack AI: Stack AI documents 100+ integrations for connecting to existing business systems but does not detail a dedicated RAG/knowledge-indexing pipeline in its feature list.
A dedicated knowledge pipeline with documented storage limits matters for teams building agents that need to reason over large internal document sets.
Compliance Certifications
Dify: Dify's Enterprise tier offers SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 compliance plus SSO/SAML and RBAC.
Stack AI: Stack AI documents broader compliance across all its tiers: SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA, ISO 27001, and GDPR.
HIPAA compliance specifically matters for any team processing healthcare data, and GDPR matters for EU data handling.
| Feature | Dify | Stack AI |
|---|---|---|
| No-code visual builder | Available | Available |
| Multi-LLM/model-agnostic support | Not documented | Available |
| RAG knowledge pipeline | Available | Not documented |
| Industry-specific templates | Not documented | Available |
| Plugin/custom tool development | Available | Not documented |
| Feature | Dify | Stack AI |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier | Available | Available |
| Published mid-tier pricing | Available | Unavailable |
| Self-hosted free option | Available | Not documented |
| Custom Enterprise plan | Available | Available |
| Feature | Dify | Stack AI |
|---|---|---|
| VPC / on-premise deployment | Available | Available |
| Audit logs / human-in-the-loop review | Not documented | Available |
| SSO/SAML and RBAC | Available | Available |
| HIPAA compliance | Not documented | Available |
Starting price reflects the lowest paid tier, not the full cost for every team size or usage level.
Pros
Cons
Pros
Cons
Dify is open source — its Community Edition can be self-hosted for free via Docker Compose under a modified Apache 2.0 license. Stack AI does not document an open-source release; its deployment flexibility (cloud, VPC, on-premise) is delivered as a commercial product.
Dify does: Cloud's Professional plan is $590/year and Team is $1,590/year. Stack AI publishes only a Free plan (500 runs/month); beyond that, pricing is custom Enterprise with no documented mid-tier.
Stack AI does — it provides pre-built workflows for finance, legal, healthcare, customer service, and IT. Dify's Marketplace offers model providers, tools, and integrations, but dedicated vertical-industry templates are not documented.
Stack AI is documented as LLM-agnostic, working with multiple AI models. Dify's multi-model support specifics are not detailed in its feature list, though its Marketplace does provide access to model providers.
Stack AI documents SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA, ISO 27001, and GDPR compliance. Dify's Enterprise tier offers SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 compliance plus SSO/SAML and RBAC, but HIPAA and GDPR are not specifically listed for Dify.
Yes. Dify offers a self-hosted Community Edition plus an Enterprise self-hosted/VPC option, and Stack AI is available as multi-tenant cloud, VPC, or on-premise installation.