Is Dify or Orkes better?

Neither clearly leads. Dify starts at Free and Orkes at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.

Which is cheaper, Dify or Orkes?

Dify starts at Free and Orkes at Free.

Does Dify or Orkes run on more platforms?

Dify runs on Web. Orkes runs on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, Cloud.

Can I use Dify for free?

Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.

What is Dify best used for?

Dify is most often used for ai workflow automation, custom application deployment. Of those, ai workflow automation and custom application deployment are not what Orkes is typically brought in for.

What can Dify do that Orkes cannot?

Orkes covers JSON workflow definitions, Polyglot workers, Visual workflow builder, AI and LLM tasks.

Automation Integration · head to head

Dify vs Orkes

Dify

Automation Integration

The Platform for Production-Ready Agentic Workflows

From: Free
Rated: -

Full review Website

Orkes

Automation Integration

Commercial Conductor, now the maintainer of the workflow engine Netflix archived

From: Free
Rated: -

Full review Website

The short version

Each has a real cost: Dify free tier limited to 200 monthly message credits; Orkes netflix archived the Conductor repository in December 2023 and Orkes took over maintenance, so the large-company backing that justified many original adoptions no longer exists.
Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Dify and Orkes actually diverge.

Attributes where Dify and Orkes differ
Attribute	Dify	Orkes
Pricing model	freemium	quote
Platforms	Web	Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, Cloud

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Automation Integration).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Dify

Nothing recorded that Orkes does not also cover.

Only in Orkes

JSON workflow definitions
Polyglot workers
Visual workflow builder
AI and LLM tasks
Human tasks
Event handlers
RBAC and secrets
Hosted or self-hosted

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Dify

AI workflow automationnot Orkes
Custom application deploymentnot Orkes

Orkes

A microservices estate that needs orchestration across services written in different languages without a shared SDKnot Dify
A team already running Conductor OSS that wants a supported distribution now that Netflix has stopped maintaining itnot Dify
An AI platform composing agent steps, model calls and vector lookups as versioned workflow definitionsnot Dify
A business process needing human approval steps interleaved with automated service callsnot Dify

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Dify

Free tier limited to 200 monthly message credits
Professional tier supports only 3 team members

Orkes

Netflix archived the Conductor repository in December 2023 and Orkes took over maintenance, so the large-company backing that justified many original adoptions no longer exists.
Enterprise pricing is entirely unpublished, and the only free option is explicitly a prototyping sandbox whose limits can change at any time, so there is no supported low-cost entry point.
Self-hosting Conductor OSS in production means operating the engine plus its persistence and indexing dependencies, typically Postgres or Cassandra with Elasticsearch, which is a substantial platform commitment.
JSON workflow definitions are language agnostic but verbose and awkward to test, and teams accustomed to defining workflows in code find them a step backwards in developer experience.
Orkes is a small company whose commercial future is tied to a single open source project it also maintains, which concentrates both vendor and project risk in the same place.

Pricing, plan by plan

Dify

Free

SandboxFree
- 200 monthly message credits
- 1 workspace
- 5 apps
Professional$590/year
- 5,000 monthly message credits
- 3 team members
- 50 apps
Team$1590/year
- 10,000 monthly message credits
- 50 team members
- 200 apps

Orkes

Free

Developer EditionFree
- All Conductor OSS features plus enterprise capabilities
- Sandbox for prototyping only
- Rate limits and resources may change without notice
Enterprise$undefined/year
- Availability SLA up to 99.99%
- Orkes-hosted or customer-hosted deployment
- Dedicated technical account manager

Which should you pick?

Choose Dify if

You want to start without paying.

Dify review

Choose Orkes if

You need json workflow definitions.
You want to start without paying.
You work on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, Cloud.
You also want polyglot workers.

Orkes review

Questions people ask

Is Dify or Orkes better?: Neither clearly leads. Dify starts at Free and Orkes at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Dify or Orkes?: Dify starts at Free and Orkes at Free.
Does Dify or Orkes run on more platforms?: Dify runs on Web. Orkes runs on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, Cloud.
Can I use Dify for free?: Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Dify best used for?: Dify is most often used for ai workflow automation, custom application deployment. Of those, ai workflow automation and custom application deployment are not what Orkes is typically brought in for.
What can Dify do that Orkes cannot?: Orkes covers JSON workflow definitions, Polyglot workers, Visual workflow builder, AI and LLM tasks.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Dify: How much does Dify cost?

Dify Cloud offers a free Sandbox tier, Professional at $590/year with 5,000 monthly credits, and Team at $1,590/year with 10,000 monthly credits.

Source

Orkes: Does Netflix still maintain Conductor?

No. Netflix archived its repository in December 2023. The open source project continues at conductor-oss under Apache 2.0, maintained by Orkes.

Dify: Is Dify free to use?

Yes, Dify offers a free Sandbox tier with 200 monthly message credits, 1 workspace, 5 apps, and 50MB storage. Community edition is free and open-source.

Source

Orkes: Is there a free production tier?

No. The Developer Edition is a sandbox that the vendor states is unsuitable for production. Self-hosting Conductor OSS is the free production route.

Dify: What are Dify's team collaboration limits?

Professional tier supports 3 team members. Team tier supports 50 team members. Enterprise plans with custom team sizes require contacting sales.

Source

Orkes: What does Enterprise cost?

Nothing is published; it is quoted by deployment and support requirements.

Orkes: How does it compare with Temporal?

Conductor uses declarative JSON workflow definitions and external workers; Temporal defines workflows in code. Temporal has the larger community.

Dify vs Orkes

Dify

Orkes

The short version

Where they differ

What each one covers

Only in Dify

Only in Orkes

What people use each for

Dify

Orkes

Where each one falls short

Dify

Orkes

Pricing, plan by plan

Dify

Orkes

Which should you pick?

Choose Dify if

Choose Orkes if

Questions people ask

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Related pages

More on Dify

More on Orkes

Keep looking

Other head to heads