Side-by-side comparison · Automation & Workflows
Dify vs Make vs Parabola
Everything that matters when choosing between them, in one place: our rating, what each can do, what they cost, and the trade-offs.
Comparing 3 tools, the maximum.
At a glance
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.
Pick it if: Marketers and operators who've outgrown simple automations and want to see what their workflows are doing.
Pick it if: Operations and finance teams at ecommerce and logistics businesses who live in spreadsheets.
Overview
| Attribute | Dify | Make | Parabola |
|---|---|---|---|
| In one line | 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. | Automates messy operations data jobs like reconciliations, reports and invoice audits. |
| Pricing model | Freemium | Freemium | Freemium |
| Starting price | $59/mo per workspace | From $9/mo | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Works with Claude Code | Yes | Yes | No |
Rating breakdown
Our scores out of 5. The higher bar in each row is highlighted.
| Attribute | Dify | Make | Parabola |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall rating | 4.1 | 4.3Winner | 4.0 |
| Ease of useHow quickly someone non-technical gets value from it. | 3.5 | 4.0 | 3.5 |
| FeaturesHow completely it covers its own job, and how well the pieces fit together. | 4.5 | 4.5 | 4.5 |
| Output qualityHow good the results are before you fix them. | 4.0 | 4.5 | 4.5 |
| Value for moneyWhat you get for the price, including the free plan. | 4.5 | 4.5 | 3.5 |
| 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.
| Attribute | Dify | Make | Parabola |
|---|---|---|---|
| Access & platform | |||
| Free plan | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Mobile app | No | – | – |
| Desktop app | No | No | – |
| Browser extension | No | Yes | – |
| API access | 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 | No | 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 | – | No | – |
| Runs agents or automations | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Learns your brand or style | – | No | – |
| Works in many languages | Yes | Yes | – |
| Capabilities score | 10/ 17 | 9/ 17 | 6/ 17 |
Pricing
Plans as listed on each vendor's site when we last checked. Confirm before you buy.
| Attribute | Dify | Make | Parabola |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plans | 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. | BasicOur pick Free One person automating their own reports. |
Sandbox Free Trying Dify Cloud before you pay. | CoreOur pick From $9/mo billed yearly One person automating a small business. | Business Custom Operations and finance teams. | |
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. | ||
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 pick | 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. | Start on the free Basic plan to rebuild one report you do every week. If the team needs to share and govern Flows, ask for a Business proof of concept, which is free if it doesn't prove value. |
Key features
| Attribute | Dify | Make | Parabola |
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Pros and cons
| Attribute | Dify | Make | Parabola |
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Who each one is for
| Attribute | Dify | Make | Parabola |
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Questions people ask
Which is better, Dify, Make or Parabola?
Make scores highest overall in our ratings (Dify 4.1/5, Make 4.3/5 and Parabola 4.0/5). 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. Parabola is best for inventory and order reconciliation and shipping and parcel invoice audits.
Which is cheaper, Dify, Make or Parabola?
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. Parabola: It's free to use.
Which is easier to use, Dify, Make or Parabola?
Make rates highest for ease of use in our scores. Marketers and operators who've outgrown simple automations and want to see what their workflows are doing.
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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