Self-hosted AI assistant: profClaw vs Dify vs OpenWebUI

[thegdsks]

Three different approaches to self-hosted AI. Here is how they compare.

OpenWebUI is a ChatGPT/Claude clone you self-host. Clean chat interface, model switching, file uploads. If you want a private ChatGPT, this is it. No tools, no task management, no agent workflows.

Dify is a visual workflow builder. Drag-and-drop agent pipelines, knowledge bases, RAG. Good if you want to build AI applications visually. Heavier to run, needs PostgreSQL + Redis + multiple services.

profClaw is an agent engine with project management built in. 72 tools, 35 providers, tickets, sprints, cron, 22 chat channels. Runs on a Raspberry Pi in pico mode (100MB). More opinionated than Dify, simpler than building from scratch.

	OpenWebUI	Dify	profClaw
Primary use	Private ChatGPT	Visual AI workflows	AI agent task engine
UI	Chat only	Workflow builder	Dashboard + Chat
Tools	None	Custom nodes	72 built-in
Project mgmt	No	No	Yes (tickets, sprints)
Local AI	Ollama	Ollama	Ollama + Gemma 4
Min resources	~500MB	~2GB (multi-service)	~100MB (pico)
Chat channels	No	No	22 (Slack, Discord, etc.)
Cost tracking	No	Basic	Per-token with budgets

None of these replace each other. They solve different problems.