
Dify
API-first managed RAG with strong table answers and connectors, but you still need guardrails for scans, multilingual retrieval, and refusal cases.
Good core, but not safe to trust blindly
- you want an API-first managed RAG service with upload/connect workflows, citations, and configurable chunking
- you need built-in connectors, Connector sync, and verified dataset isolation
- you can tolerate slower responses and will manually check edge cases
- you need reliable scanned-PDF retrieval
Our take
Dify looks like a real API-first RAG platform, not a marketing shell: ingestion, connector sync, and tenant isolation all held up in hands-on testing. But the evaluation also found three meaningful weaknesses — scanned-document retrieval, multilingual retrieval, and out-of-corpus hallucinations/citation drift — plus noticeably slow latency. It is promising if you can add guardrails and manual checks; it is risky if you need the system to be correct by default.
In-Depth Review
Our detailed analysis of Dify — features, performance, and real-world testing.
Feature-by-Feature Breakdown
Document Ingestion and IndexingUploads and indexing are real, but dense PDFs need chunking control to avoid over-fragmentation and storage blowups.▾
Feature tested: Document Ingestion and Indexing
Result: Passed
Verdict: Uploads and indexing are real, but dense PDFs need chunking control to avoid over-fragmentation and storage blowups.
Expected behavior: Dify can take uploaded source material through its REST API and build a searchable knowledge base from PDFs and mixed-format documents. The tested corpus indexed without manual intervention, though dense PDFs sometimes needed chunking tuned.
Test case: PDF document → Image
Input type: PDF document
Input used: Input artifact (PDF document): Table-heavy Sumitomo Q1 2025 PDF used for upload testing. — 01_tables_sumitomo-heavy-industries-Q1-2025.pdf
Observed output: Output artifact (Image): HTTP 200 upload call with real document and batch IDs; the upload/indexing path is live. — code_evidence_upload_api_BEST.png
Input artifact: Input artifact (PDF document): Table-heavy Sumitomo Q1 2025 PDF used for upload testing. — 01_tables_sumitomo-heavy-industries-Q1-2025.pdf
Output artifact: Output artifact (Image): HTTP 200 upload call with real document and batch IDs; the upload/indexing path is live. — code_evidence_upload_api_BEST.png
What changed: PDF document transformed into Image
Why it matters / Conclusion: The ingestion path is genuine and automatable, but the default chunking strategy needs tuning on dense documents.
Dify can take uploaded source material through its REST API and build a searchable knowledge base from PDFs and mixed-format documents. The tested corpus indexed without manual intervention, though dense PDFs sometimes needed chunking tuned.

Grounded Corpus Question AnsweringStrong on ordinary grounded QA, including direct facts, table cells, and deep long-doc passages.8/10▾
Feature tested: Grounded Corpus Question Answering
Result: Partial (8/10)
Verdict: Strong on ordinary grounded QA, including direct facts, table cells, and deep long-doc passages.
Expected behavior: Dify can answer factual questions from the indexed corpus, including direct lookups, table/numeric extraction from PDFs, and buried questions in long reports. The same grounded QA path also correctly refused many questions the corpus could not answer and used citations when answering from source.
Test case: PDF document → Image
Input type: PDF document
Input used: Input artifact (PDF document): Direct factual question from the Sumitomo PDF about listing venue and stock code. — 01_tables_sumitomo-heavy-industries-Q1-2025.pdf
Observed output: Output artifact (Image): Correct direct factual answer from the knowledge base: Tokyo Stock Exchange, stock code 6302. — ui_D7_direct_factual_BEST.png
Input artifact: Input artifact (PDF document): Direct factual question from the Sumitomo PDF about listing venue and stock code. — 01_tables_sumitomo-heavy-industries-Q1-2025.pdf
Output artifact: Output artifact (Image): Correct direct factual answer from the knowledge base: Tokyo Stock Exchange, stock code 6302. — ui_D7_direct_factual_BEST.png
What changed: PDF document transformed into Image
Test case: PDF document → Image
Input type: PDF document
Input used: Input artifact (PDF document): Table/numeric question from the same Sumitomo PDF. — 01_tables_sumitomo-heavy-industries-Q1-2025.pdf
Observed output: Output artifact (Image): Correct table answer: Q1 2025 consolidated net sales of 241,536 million yen. — ui_T1_table_numeric_BEST.png
Input artifact: Input artifact (PDF document): Table/numeric question from the same Sumitomo PDF. — 01_tables_sumitomo-heavy-industries-Q1-2025.pdf
Output artifact: Output artifact (Image): Correct table answer: Q1 2025 consolidated net sales of 241,536 million yen. — ui_T1_table_numeric_BEST.png
What changed: PDF document transformed into Image
Test case: PDF document → Image
Input type: PDF document
Input used: Input artifact (PDF document): Deep-in-long-document question from the Fed report. — 03_longform_fed-monetary-policy-report-2026-07.pdf
Observed output: Output artifact (Image): Correct buried-answer retrieval from the long report, including the 2.2 percent 2026 real GDP projection. — ui_DL1_deep_in_long_doc_BEST.png
Input artifact: Input artifact (PDF document): Deep-in-long-document question from the Fed report. — 03_longform_fed-monetary-policy-report-2026-07.pdf
Output artifact: Output artifact (Image): Correct buried-answer retrieval from the long report, including the 2.2 percent 2026 real GDP projection. — ui_DL1_deep_in_long_doc_BEST.png
What changed: PDF document transformed into Image
Test case: Text prompt → Image
Input type: Text prompt
Input used: Input artifact (Text prompt): INPUT
Observed output: Output artifact (Image): Hallucinated 3.5% to 3.75% with a citation attached. — api_evidence_02_O4_hallucination_with_citation_BEST.png
Input artifact: Input artifact (Text prompt): INPUT
Output artifact: Output artifact (Image): Hallucinated 3.5% to 3.75% with a citation attached. — api_evidence_02_O4_hallucination_with_citation_BEST.png
What changed: Text prompt transformed into Image
Test case: Text prompt → Image
Input type: Text prompt
Input used: Input artifact (Text prompt): INPUT
Observed output: Output artifact (Image): The cited chunk does not actually support the September claim. — api_evidence_03_O4_citation_fidelity_FAIL_BEST.png
Input artifact: Input artifact (Text prompt): INPUT
Output artifact: Output artifact (Image): The cited chunk does not actually support the September claim. — api_evidence_03_O4_citation_fidelity_FAIL_BEST.png
What changed: Text prompt transformed into Image
Test case: Text prompt → Image
Input type: Text prompt
Input used: Input artifact (Text prompt): INPUT
Observed output: Output artifact (Image): Fabricated a casualty figure from a different earthquake and used no citation. — code_evidence_O6_hallucination_BEST.png
Input artifact: Input artifact (Text prompt): INPUT
Output artifact: Output artifact (Image): Fabricated a casualty figure from a different earthquake and used no citation. — code_evidence_O6_hallucination_BEST.png
What changed: Text prompt transformed into Image
Why it matters / Conclusion: It is useful for standard fact lookup and long-doc Q&A when the answer is actually in the corpus.
Dify can answer factual questions from the indexed corpus, including direct lookups, table/numeric extraction from PDFs, and buried questions in long reports. The same grounded QA path also correctly refused many questions the corpus could not answer and used citations when answering from source.






Cross-Document SynthesisGood on English cross-document joins and version selection, but the weakness shows up when the join depends on Hindi content.▾
Feature tested: Cross-Document Synthesis
Result: Passed
Verdict: Good on English cross-document joins and version selection, but the weakness shows up when the join depends on Hindi content.
Expected behavior: Dify can combine or choose among related documents when answering, such as multi-hop prompts, superseded-vs-current policy pairs, and near-duplicate guide editions. The tested cases worked well in English-only scenarios.
Test case: Text prompt → Image
Input type: Text prompt
Input used: Input artifact (Text prompt): INPUT
Observed output: Output artifact (Image): Multi-hop question answered correctly from the English corpus. — ui_M3_multi_hop_BEST.png
Input artifact: Input artifact (Text prompt): INPUT
Output artifact: Output artifact (Image): Multi-hop question answered correctly from the English corpus. — ui_M3_multi_hop_BEST.png
What changed: Text prompt transformed into Image
Test case: PDF document → Image
Input type: PDF document
Input used: Input artifact (PDF document): Superseded 2025 and current 2026 IRS Publication 15 pair — 05b_contradiction_irs-pub15_2026_CURRENT.pdf
Observed output: Output artifact (Image): Resolved to the current 2026 IRS figures, including the $8,400 Social Security wage-base increase. — ui_C1_contradiction_BEST.png
Input artifact: Input artifact (PDF document): Superseded 2025 and current 2026 IRS Publication 15 pair — 05b_contradiction_irs-pub15_2026_CURRENT.pdf
Output artifact: Output artifact (Image): Resolved to the current 2026 IRS figures, including the $8,400 Social Security wage-base increase. — ui_C1_contradiction_BEST.png
What changed: PDF document transformed into Image
Test case: PDF document → Image
Input type: PDF document
Input used: Input artifact (PDF document): Near-duplicate 2025 and 2026 IRS Publication 15-B editions — 06b_nearduplicate_irs-pub15b_2026.pdf
Observed output: Output artifact (Image): Selected the 2026 edition and the $340 monthly qualified-parking exclusion. — ui_N2_near_duplicate_BEST.png
Input artifact: Input artifact (PDF document): Near-duplicate 2025 and 2026 IRS Publication 15-B editions — 06b_nearduplicate_irs-pub15b_2026.pdf
Output artifact: Output artifact (Image): Selected the 2026 edition and the $340 monthly qualified-parking exclusion. — ui_N2_near_duplicate_BEST.png
What changed: PDF document transformed into Image
Why it matters / Conclusion: English cross-document reasoning is decent; the failure mode shows up when the needed join crosses into Hindi.
Dify can combine or choose among related documents when answering, such as multi-hop prompts, superseded-vs-current policy pairs, and near-duplicate guide editions. The tested cases worked well in English-only scenarios.



Multilingual RetrievalThe Hindi document ingests fine, but retrieval from Hindi content does not work in the tested set.0/4▾
Feature tested: Multilingual Retrieval
Result: Failed (0/4)
Verdict: The Hindi document ingests fine, but retrieval from Hindi content does not work in the tested set.
Expected behavior: Dify indexed the Hindi RBI PDF, but questions that depended on it failed, including mixed Hindi-English prompts. The tested behavior shows language-specific retrieval support as a distinct capability, even though the Hindi side was not successfully surfaced.
Test case: PDF document → Text prompt
Input type: PDF document
Input used: Input artifact (PDF document): Hindi RBI MPC PDF used for the multilingual retrieval test. — 07_nonenglish_hindi_rbi_mpc.pdf
Observed output: Output artifact (Text prompt): OUTPUT
Input artifact: Input artifact (PDF document): Hindi RBI MPC PDF used for the multilingual retrieval test. — 07_nonenglish_hindi_rbi_mpc.pdf
Output artifact: Output artifact (Text prompt): OUTPUT
What changed: PDF document transformed into Text prompt
Test case: Text prompt → Text prompt
Input type: Text prompt
Input used: Input artifact (Text prompt): INPUT
Observed output: Output artifact (Text prompt): OUTPUT
Input artifact: Input artifact (Text prompt): INPUT
Output artifact: Output artifact (Text prompt): OUTPUT
What changed: Text prompt transformed into Text prompt
Why it matters / Conclusion: Hindi indexing works; Hindi retrieval does not.
Dify indexed the Hindi RBI PDF, but questions that depended on it failed, including mixed Hindi-English prompts. The tested behavior shows language-specific retrieval support as a distinct capability, even though the Hindi side was not successfully surfaced.
Connector Sync and RetrievalA real connector ecosystem exists, but it is plugin-based and carries onboarding friction.▾
Feature tested: Connector Sync and Retrieval
Result: Passed
Verdict: A real connector ecosystem exists, but it is plugin-based and carries onboarding friction.
Expected behavior: Dify supports marketplace data-source connectors and can sync live external sources such as Notion into Knowledge. The tested connector path indexed a real page and made it retrievable, though it required plugin-install onboarding.
Test case: Text prompt → Image
Input type: Text prompt
Input used: Input artifact (Text prompt): INPUT
Observed output: Output artifact (Image): The synced Notion page is available in Knowledge with retrieval enabled. — connector_notion_synced_available_BEST.png
Input artifact: Input artifact (Text prompt): INPUT
Output artifact: Output artifact (Image): The synced Notion page is available in Knowledge with retrieval enabled. — connector_notion_synced_available_BEST.png
What changed: Text prompt transformed into Image
Test case: Text prompt → Image
Input type: Text prompt
Input used: Input artifact (Text prompt): INPUT
Observed output: Output artifact (Image): The marketplace shows 25+ connector plugins, but nothing is pre-installed. — connector_marketplace_catalog_BEST.png
Input artifact: Input artifact (Text prompt): INPUT
Output artifact: Output artifact (Image): The marketplace shows 25+ connector plugins, but nothing is pre-installed. — connector_marketplace_catalog_BEST.png
What changed: Text prompt transformed into Image
Why it matters / Conclusion: Connector support is real, but every source still has plugin-install onboarding friction.
Dify supports marketplace data-source connectors and can sync live external sources such as Notion into Knowledge. The tested connector path indexed a real page and made it retrievable, though it required plugin-install onboarding.


Dataset IsolationNo cross-tenant leakage was observed in the isolation test.▾
Feature tested: Dataset Isolation
Result: Passed
Verdict: No cross-tenant leakage was observed in the isolation test.
Expected behavior: Separate datasets stayed isolated in testing: a second dataset containing only part of the corpus did not leak answers from excluded documents. A question answerable only from missing files returned irrelevant chunks instead.
Test case: Text prompt → Text/code file
Input type: Text prompt
Input used: Input artifact (Text prompt): INPUT
Observed output: Output artifact (Text/code file): The retrieval response contains only low-relevance Fed chunks, indicating no leakage from the excluded IRS documents. — tenancy_03_leakage_test_retrieve.txt
Input artifact: Input artifact (Text prompt): INPUT
Output artifact: Output artifact (Text/code file): The retrieval response contains only low-relevance Fed chunks, indicating no leakage from the excluded IRS documents. — tenancy_03_leakage_test_retrieve.txt
What changed: Text prompt transformed into Text/code file
Test case: Text prompt → Image
Input type: Text prompt
Input used: Input artifact (Text prompt): INPUT
Observed output: Output artifact (Image): The workspace shows both the scored corpus and the isolation-test dataset. — tenancy_datasets_list_BEST.png
Input artifact: Input artifact (Text prompt): INPUT
Output artifact: Output artifact (Image): The workspace shows both the scored corpus and the isolation-test dataset. — tenancy_datasets_list_BEST.png
What changed: Text prompt transformed into Image
Why it matters / Conclusion: Isolation held cleanly with no cross-tenant leakage.
Separate datasets stayed isolated in testing: a second dataset containing only part of the corpus did not leak answers from excluded documents. A question answerable only from missing files returned irrelevant chunks instead.

There’s Always a Plan for You
Dify Cloud, Sandbox, Community, and Enterprise options
The pricing capture shows a Monthly/Annually toggle and a mix of paid and free tiers. The report also notes Sandbox's 200 one-time credits and 50 MB storage cap, plus fully self-serve paid tiers and a quote-gated Enterprise option.
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