Dify vs Microsoft Agent Framework

as AI assistants see them, week of 2026-10-19

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Dify edges out Microsoft Agent Framework overall, scoring 12 versus 10, and shows up slightly more often too — 22 of 73 answers compared to 20 of 73. Dify is the go-to pick for "best AI agent builder in 2026" and "best self-hosted platform," hitting 3 of 3 answers in both. Microsoft Agent Framework, meanwhile, dominates the "which framework should a developer choose" question, also 3 of 3. Head-to-head, Dify leads in 7 questions, Microsoft Agent Framework in 6, and they tie in 12 — a close, split race between the two.

Head to head

metric	Dify	Microsoft Agent Framework
score	12	10
questions won	12	10

By assistant

Dify

assistant	score	named in, this week	usual spot, this week
ChatGPT	13	30% of answers	#6.2
Claude	13	25% of answers	#9.6
Gemini	not sampled this week
Perplexity	12	22% of answers	#5.5

Microsoft Agent Framework

assistant	score	named in, this week	usual spot, this week
ChatGPT	14	20% of answers	#4.0
Claude	5	10% of answers	#6.0
Gemini	not sampled this week
Perplexity	15	22% of answers	#5.0

Where they differ

Only Dify gets named for

What's the best self-hosted platform for running AI agents privately?
What's the best AI agent builder in 2026?
What's the best no-code tool to build an AI agent?
What's the best tool to build an AI agent that browses the web and does research?
What's the best platform for an agency building AI agents for clients?
What are the best alternatives to n8n?

Only Microsoft Agent Framework gets named for

Which AI agent framework should a developer choose?
What's the best tool for building multi-agent systems?
What are the best alternatives to Pydantic AI?
What's the best platform to build AI agents that use MCP tools?

More comparisons

Not sold on either?

Scores count how often each assistant names a product, weighted by position. How the score works · Full AI agent builders leaderboard