Self-host Dify

A platform for building LLM applications — chatbots, agents and multi-step workflows — in a visual editor, with a built-in RAG pipeline over your own documents and connectors for many model providers. Its modified Apache 2.0 license forbids running it as a multi-tenant service or removing the Dify logo from the web frontend without a commercial license.

Key facts

What you need

• Any VPS with at least 4096 MB of RAM
• A domain you control — most self-hosted setups need HTTPS in front of them
• Under an hour if you've used Docker before

Install

Run these commands on your server:

copy# Dify — official Docker Compose stack from the repo's docker/ directory (README Quick start), pinned to release 1.17.1
git clone --depth 1 --branch 1.17.1 https://github.com/langgenius/dify.git
cd dify/docker
cp .env.example .env
# SECRET_KEY is left empty on purpose: Dify generates a persistent key in its storage volume on first start
docker compose up -d
# first start pulls ~10 images (API, worker, web, Postgres, Redis, Weaviate, sandbox, nginx, …)
# create the admin account at http://SERVER_IP:80/install

Head-to-head

AI Agent PlatformsSep 2026

Dify

vs

Langflow

The team LLM-app platform vs. the Python-component canvas.

Read the verdict →

More self-hosted tools

AI Agent Platforms

AgentArea

A self-hosted runtime for governed agentic networks: instead of an agent library you import into your own app, AgentArea runs agents durably as infrastructure, with VPC-style network isolation between them, tool-approval workflows, ReBAC authorization, and full audit trails. Built on Temporal for durable execution, provider-agnostic via LiteLLM, and extensible through hosted MCP servers.

PythonNext.jsGoTemporal

hardRead guide →

AI Agent Platforms

Langflow

A visual builder for AI agents and workflows: connect models, vector stores and tools as components on a canvas, then serve each flow through an API or as an MCP server. Runs on SQLite by default, or PostgreSQL for production.

PythonFastAPIReactTypeScript

easyRead guide →

Notes

AFFiNE

A workspace that combines documents, whiteboards and databases on one canvas, with a local-first editor and real-time collaboration. The self-hosted server runs with PostgreSQL and Redis; upstream plans for at least 2 GB of RAM.

TypeScriptNode.jsRustPostgreSQLRedis

easyRead guide →

E-books & comics

Calibre-Web

A web app for browsing, reading and downloading eBooks from an existing Calibre library (metadata.db), with OPDS, per-user permissions, shelves, Kobo sync and send-to-e-reader.

PythonFlask

easyRead guide →