AnythingLLM vs Dify vs Kortix: which open-source tool fits your job?
AnythingLLM is a workspace for chatting with your documents. Dify is a platform for building and shipping AI apps. Kortix is the open-source AI Operating System: the one we recommend when agents need to do the work across a whole company.
AnythingLLM vs Dify vs Kortix, by the job
One is a document-chat workspace, one is an app-building platform, and one is where agents do the work across a company.
How an agent becomes a file you review
# kortix.yamlagents: support-triage: file: agents/support-triage.md # what it does, in plain markdown connectors: all # what it may reachAn agent is a markdown file plus a block in kortix.yaml, so what it does and what it may reach arrive as a diff.
Match the tool to the job
AnythingLLM is a workspace for chatting with your own documents: it ingests files, indexes them, and answers from them, and it can run agents, with multi-user support when you host the Docker version (AnythingLLM repo, docs). Dify is a platform for building AI applications: a visual canvas for agentic workflows and RAG pipelines, hundreds of models, and a marketplace of tools you publish as web apps or APIs (Dify repo, docs). Both are open source. They answer different questions: what do I do with these files, and what app do I build.
Route by the job
The three names get compared because each one touches models and documents, but the job is different.
- Chat with files. AnythingLLM fits. Point it at a folder, connect a local or cloud model, and ask questions with source citations. It runs locally by default.
- Build an app. Dify fits. Wire a workflow on the canvas, attach a knowledge base, then publish it as a web app, an API or an MCP tool.
- Run a company where agents work. Kortix is built for that layer, and it is open source: agents, skills, company memory and connectors live in one git repo you own, and every session runs on its own cloud computer. The agent opens a change request, and a person merges it.
What a workspace and a builder leave to you
AnythingLLM and Dify both self-host, and Dify documents a Community Edition for your own infrastructure (Dify docs). What neither is built to be is the layer a whole company runs on. Kortix puts per-resource permissions for people and agents, approval gates you set, an audit trail, and SAML 2.0 single sign-on into the same repo as the agents. Work reaches main through a change request a person reviews, not a direct write.
If your decision is between the other two, the Kortix vs AnythingLLM comparison and the list of AnythingLLM alternatives go deeper on each.
How to choose
Pick AnythingLLM when one person or a small team needs a private, local chat over documents. Pick Dify when a builder is shipping AI apps and pipelines and needs a canvas, a marketplace and an API. Pick Kortix when agents should do the work across teams, on real cloud computers, landing changes a person approves. The comparison table on this page lines the three up on source, models, hosting and price.
Questions before you pick
AnythingLLM documents multi-user support and permissioning in its Docker version, and Dify documents SSO and role-based access in its Enterprise edition. Kortix puts per-resource permissions for people and agents, roles, groups and an audit trail in the same repo as the agents.
Free is $0 with 200 credits per month and 1 project. The team plan is $40 per seat per month with 2,500 credits per month per seat, pooled. Self-host is free.
Any model provider with your own keys, or the ChatGPT plan you already pay for. AnythingLLM also connects to local models such as Ollama and LM Studio.
No. AnythingLLM belongs to Mintplex Labs and Dify belongs to its makers; this site names them only to compare, and its pick for a company is Kortix.
Start with one job, in a repo you own
Self-host it free, or start on Kortix Cloud and grow from one agent.
Open source · Any model, your keys · Self-host, VPC, or on-prem