head to head · open source
grpc-gateway vs Apache APISIX
grpc-gateway has 20,012 GitHub stars, 2,415 forks, 149 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Apache APISIX has 17,289 stars, 2,989 forks, 235 open issues and last shipped yesterday. grpc-gateway leads on adoption by 16% (20,012 vs 17,289 stars). grpc-gateway is written in Go under BSD-3-Clause; Apache APISIX is written in Lua under Apache-2.0. grpc-gateway has attracted 12% as many forks as stars, Apache APISIX 17%. grpc-gateway was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| grpc-gateway | Apache APISIX | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 20K | ★ 17K |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Lua |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 3.0K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick grpc-gateway if
- You weight community size — 20K stars and counting
- You want the BSD-3-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Apache APISIX if
- You want the Apache APISIX feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Lua
- You evaluated both and Apache APISIX fits your workflow better
About grpc-gateway
gRPC Gateway gRPC to JSON proxy generator following the gRPC HTTP spec About The gRPC Gateway is a plugin of the Google protocol buffers compiler protoc. It reads protobuf service definitions and generates a reverse proxy server which translates a RESTful HTTP API into gRPC. This server is generated according to the google.api.http annotations in your service definitions. This helps you provide your APIs in both gRPC and RESTful style at the same time. Docs You can read our docs at: Testimonials We use the gRPC Gateway to serve millions of API requests per day, and have been since 2018 and through all of that…
read the full grpc-gateway overview →
About Apache APISIX
Apache APISIX API Gateway ｜ AI Gateway Apache APISIX is a dynamic, real time, high performance API Gateway. APISIX API Gateway provides rich traffic management features such as load balancing, dynamic upstream, canary release, circuit breaking, authentication, observability, and more. You can use it to handle traditional north south traffic, as well as east west traffic between services. It can also be used as a Kubernetes ingress controller. Table of Contents Why APISIX AI Gateway Get Started Features Benchmark Community User Stories Who Uses APISIX API Gateway? Logos Acknowledgments License Why APISIX APISIX…
read the full Apache APISIX overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is grpc-gateway or Apache APISIX more popular?
grpc-gateway has 20,012 GitHub stars and Apache APISIX has 17,289. grpc-gateway has the larger community by that measure.
Are grpc-gateway and Apache APISIX free?
Both are open source. grpc-gateway is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and Apache APISIX under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between grpc-gateway and Apache APISIX?
grpc-gateway is written in Go and Apache APISIX in Lua. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, grpc-gateway or Apache APISIX?
Choose grpc-gateway if you want the larger community (20,012 stars) or its BSD-3-Clause licence terms. Choose Apache APISIX if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.