Dify vs Sim
Two of the top agent platforms, side by side: score, setup, license, activity and what each review found.
Dify
Visual LLM app platform with workflows, RAG pipeline, agents and APIs
Sim
Workspace to build, deploy and monitor agents with 1,000+ integrations
| What we compare | Dify | Sim |
|---|---|---|
| Score parts, out of 100 | ||
| Adoption | 93, widely used | 53, popular |
| Freshness | 100, active | 100, active |
| Maintenance | 93, healthy | 84, healthy |
| Easy to run | 33, some setup | 50, easy |
| Agent-ready | 45, minimal | 85, ready |
| Facts from GitHub and the README | ||
| Stars | 158.1k | 29.8k |
| License | custom license (read the license) | Apache-2.0 (permissive) |
| Last commit | Oct 2026 | Oct 2026 |
| Last release | Sep 2026 | Oct 2026 |
| Language | Not stated | Not stated |
| Docker | Yes | Yes |
| GPU | Not needed | Not needed |
| arm64 or Apple Silicon | Not stated | Mentioned |
Dify
Dify is an LLM app platform started with Docker Compose (dashboard on port 80) that needs 2 CPU cores and 4 GiB RAM. One canvas covers visual workflows, a prompt IDE, a RAG pipeline that ingests PDFs and PPTs, sandboxed agents using Marketplace tools, MCP servers or your own APIs, plus LLMOps tracing via Opik, Langfuse or Arize Phoenix. Hundreds of models work, including OpenAI-compatible endpoints.
Who it is for: Product teams building LLM apps and RAG workflows without heavy code
Strengths
- Workflow, RAG, agents, prompt IDE and model management in one canvas
- Hundreds of models: GPT, Mistral, Llama3 and any OpenAI-compatible API
- Observability through Opik, Langfuse and Arize Phoenix
- Every feature is exposed through an API (backend-as-a-service)
Weaknesses
- Dify Open Source License adds conditions on top of Apache 2.0
- SSO, RBAC and support SLAs are reserved for Dify Enterprise
- Minimum 2 CPU cores and 4 GiB RAM for the Compose stack
- Dashboard binds to port 80 by default
- RAM ≥ 4 GB
- no GPU
- Docker + Compose
- Models: OpenAI GPT, Mistral, Llama 3, OpenAI-compatible APIs, dozens of inference providers
- port 80
Sim
Sim is a Next.js and Bun app on PostgreSQL that builds agents visually, by chat or in code, with monitoring, schedules and logs. The npx sim-setup wizard (Node.js 20+ and Docker) provisions the database, secrets and images and serves port 3000. Tables, files and knowledge bases share the workspace, 1,000+ integrations such as Slack, Notion and HubSpot are available, and local models run via Ollama or vLLM.
Who it is for: Teams wanting a hosted-style agent builder on their own servers
Strengths
- Built-in tables, file store and knowledge bases alongside workflows and chat
- 1,000+ integrations including Slack, Notion, HubSpot, Salesforce and databases
- Local models via Ollama and vLLM; Apache-2.0 license
- sim-setup wizard adds email, storage, sandbox, jobs, cache or knowledge later
Weaknesses
- Chat is a Sim-managed service; self-hosted installs need a Chat API key from sim.ai
- Setup prompt in the README notes the Compose stack needs 12 GB+ RAM
- Background jobs use Trigger.dev and remote code execution uses E2B
- Self-hosting goes through an npx wizard rather than a documented compose file
- RAM ≥ 12 GB
- no GPU
- Docker + Compose
- Needs PostgreSQL, Docker, Sim Chat API key
- Models: Ollama, vLLM
- port 3000