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Side-by-side comparison · Automation & Workflows

Activepieces vs Dify vs Make

Everything that matters when choosing between them, in one place: our rating, what each can do, what they cost, and the trade-offs.

Activepieces

4.0

From $20/mo flat

Dify

4.1

From $59/mo per workspace

Best overall

Make

4.3

From From $9/mo

Comparing 3 tools, the maximum.

At a glance

Pick it if: Small teams who like how Zapier works but want to own their automations or avoid per-task pricing.

Dify4.1

Pick it if: Small businesses and agencies that want a custom AI chatbot or agent trained on their own documents, without hiring a developer to build it from scratch.

Make4.3
Best overall

Pick it if: Marketers and operators who've outgrown simple automations and want to see what their workflows are doing.

Overview

AttributeActivepiecesDifyMake
In one lineA Zapier-style automation builder that's open source and charges per run, not per step.Build AI chatbots, agents and workflows on a visual canvas, hosted or on your own server.Draw automations as a flowchart, with branches and loops, for less than Zapier charges.
Pricing modelFreemiumFreemiumFreemium
Starting price$20/mo flat$59/mo per workspaceFrom $9/mo
Free plan Yes Yes Yes
Works with Claude Code Yes Yes Yes

Rating breakdown

Our scores out of 5. The higher bar in each row is highlighted.

AttributeActivepiecesDifyMake
Overall rating4.04.14.3Winner
Ease of useHow quickly someone non-technical gets value from it.
4.0
3.5
4.0
FeaturesHow completely it covers its own job, and how well the pieces fit together.
3.5
4.5
4.5
Output qualityHow good the results are before you fix them.
4.0
4.0
4.5
Value for moneyWhat you get for the price, including the free plan.
4.5
4.5
4.5
Speed & reliabilityHow fast it is and how often it falls over.
4.0
4.0
4.0

Feature comparison

A tick means it does this today. A dash means we haven't checked.

AttributeActivepiecesDifyMake
Access & platform
Free plan Yes Yes Yes
Mobile app No No–
Desktop app No No No
Browser extension No No Yes
API access Yes Yes Yes
Teams & business
Team workspace Yes Yes Yes
Enterprise plan or SSO Yes Yes Yes
Connects to other apps Yes Yes Yes
Open source or self-hosted Yes Yes No
AI abilities
Works with your files Yes Yes Yes
Understands images– Yes–
Makes images No No No
Makes video No No No
Writes code Yes– No
Runs agents or automations Yes Yes Yes
Learns your brand or style No– No
Works in many languages Yes Yes Yes
Capabilities score10/ 1710/ 179/ 17

Pricing

Plans as listed on each vendor's site when we last checked. Confirm before you buy.

AttributeActivepiecesDifyMake
Plans

Free

Free

Small teams getting started, or anyone who will self-host.

Community Edition

Free (self-hosted)

Anyone comfortable running it on their own server.

Free

Free

Learning the canvas and running a couple of light scenarios.

PlusOur pick

$20/mo flat

A small business running automations every day.

Sandbox

Free

Trying Dify Cloud before you pay.

CoreOur pick

From $9/mo billed yearly

One person automating a small business.

Team

$200/mo flat

A larger team that needs SSO and roles.

ProfessionalOur pick

$59/mo per workspace, or $590/yr

A small business running a few AI apps for real.

Pro

From $16/mo billed yearly

Anyone whose automations have become business-critical.

Ultimate

Custom

Companies with heavy volume or strict security needs.

Team

$159/mo per workspace, or $1,590/yr

Bigger teams with lots of apps and users.

Teams

From $29/mo billed yearly

A team sharing scenarios and connections.

Enterprise

Custom

Companies that need a private deployment with support.

Enterprise

Custom

Companies that need SSO, audit logs and an uptime guarantee.

Which plan to pickThe Free plan is unusually generous, so start there. Move to Plus when you want monthly credits instead of a daily cap and the option to use your own AI keys. Self-host only if someone on the team is happy running a server.Build your first bot on the free Sandbox. Move to Professional when it goes live, and plug in your own Claude or OpenAI API key so you don't run out of message credits. Self-host only if you or someone on your team is happy looking after a server. Prices exclude tax.Core is enough for most small businesses. 10,000 credits goes a long way, because the steps that split a scenario or catch errors don't use any. Move to Pro if a failed run costs you money, since it runs your scenarios first in the queue and keeps better logs.

Key features

AttributeActivepiecesDifyMake
Standout features
  • Zapier-style builder
  • Flat per-run pricing
  • Self-host or cloud
  • MCP for AI assistants
  • Agents and Tables
  • Bring your own AI keys
  • Visual workflow studio
  • Knowledge base
  • Any model
  • Share and embed
  • MCP and plugins
  • Triggers and logs
  • Visual canvas
  • Routers, filters and iterators
  • Run history you can replay
  • AI Agents
  • Make Grid
  • HTTP and webhooks

Pros and cons

AttributeActivepiecesDifyMake
Pros
  • Easiest open-source automation tool to learn
  • Flat pricing, with one credit per run however long the flow
  • Generous free plan and free self-hosting
  • MCP makes every connected app available to Claude
  • Open source, so you can inspect or extend it
  • Open source and free to run on your own server
  • Works with almost any AI model, including Claude
  • Knowledge base makes it easy to build bots that know your business
  • Every app gets a chat page, website widget and API
  • Can publish workflows as MCP servers for Claude
  • Much cheaper per step than Zapier
  • Branching, loops and filters are built in, not bolted on
  • Run history shows exactly what happened at every step
  • Steps that split a scenario or handle errors do not use credits
  • Generous free plan for learning
Cons
  • Far fewer apps than Zapier, and some pieces are thin
  • Smaller community and fewer templates than n8n
  • No canvas, so complex branching is harder to follow
  • AI steps cost extra credits on top of the run
  • Takes some learning before your first useful bot
  • The free cloud plan is too small for real use
  • Message credits run out fast without your own API key
  • Self-hosting means looking after updates, backups and security yourself
  • Steeper learning curve than Zapier, especially matching up data between steps
  • Credit usage is hard to predict until you have run a scenario for a while
  • Fewer apps than Zapier, and some apps have thin coverage
  • Pricing page is hard to read, and the headline prices assume yearly billing

Who each one is for

AttributeActivepiecesDifyMake
Best for
  • Zapier-style automations on a budget
  • Giving AI assistants access to your apps
  • Long multi-step workflows
  • Self-hosted automation for teams
  • A chatbot that answers from your own documents
  • Internal AI assistants for staff
  • AI workflows you can host yourself
  • Agencies building AI bots for clients
  • Multi-step marketing workflows
  • Branching logic and filters
  • Processing batches of records
  • Automation on a budget
You'll find it used by
  • Small teams
  • Ops teams
  • Developers
  • Agencies
  • Small businesses
  • Agencies
  • Ops teams
  • Developers
  • Large companies
  • Marketers
  • Ops teams
  • Agencies
  • Consultants

Questions people ask

Which is better, Activepieces, Dify or Make?

Make scores highest overall in our ratings (Activepieces 4.0/5, Dify 4.1/5 and Make 4.3/5). Activepieces is best for zapier-style automations on a budget and Giving AI assistants access to your apps. Dify is best for A chatbot that answers from your own documents and Internal AI assistants for staff. Make is best for multi-step marketing workflows and branching logic and filters.

Which is cheaper, Activepieces, Dify or Make?

Activepieces: There's a free plan, and paid plans start at $20/mo flat. Dify: There's a free plan, and paid plans start at $59/mo per workspace. Make: There's a free plan, and paid plans start at From $9/mo.

How we compare

Ratings are our own, from using each tool, across ease of use, features, output quality, value for money, speed & reliability.

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