In 2026 "agent platform" has split into two kinds: hosted services like Coze and Bailian, where data lives in vendor data centers, and open-source self-hosted platforms, where data stays on your disk. Enterprises with data-sovereignty requirements can only pick the second kind. In China, three deserve serious attention: Dify, Coze Studio, and Zhipu Qingliu.
The three candidates at a glance
- Dify: by LangGenius, the longest-running with a leading GitHub community, mature Docker deployment, cloud edition hosted overseas
- Coze Studio: open-sourced by ByteDance in July 2025, shares lineage with commercial Coze, highly polished product, but a young community
- Zhipu Qingliu: announced open source in late April 2026, deeply integrated with the GLM stack, complete MCP support, the youngest ecosystem
Choose by scenario
- Enterprise knowledge-base Q&A and RAG first: pick Dify. The most material, the most troubleshooting posts, and the easiest to hire for — being able to search for answers is productivity
- Team already on Coze and wants private deployment: pick Coze Studio. Zero migration cost for habits, strong Doubao model adaptation
- GLM-bound model stack, or studying MCP in production: pick Qingliu. Native GLM integration, but expect thin community material and reading source code
- Just want to tinker: all three run within 30 minutes; starting with Dify or Coze Studio costs the least trial and error
What the spec sheet will not tell you
For open platforms, the hard specs (open source, self-hosting, model access) are just the entry ticket. The real differences are three: community Q&A volume (how fast you can self-rescue), release cadence (whether features get abandoned), and compatibility with the surrounding toolchain (whether you can still switch away next year). Dify currently leads on all three; Coze Studio is catching up fast; Qingliu needs time.
Verdict
There is no overall champion. Treat community maturity as the default and model-stack binding as the decider: unbound, pick Dify; bound to Doubao, Coze Studio; bound to GLM, Qingliu. For itemized specs, see our compare pages.
- 对比：Coze Studio vs Dify — Itemized specs of the two self-hosted options
- 教程：Dify 自托管从零到可用 — The full four-command walkthrough
This review reflects public information and official repositories as of September 2026, scored per the methodology on our About page. Products move fast — recheck the official docs before deciding.