head to head · open source
Apache APISIX vs swag
Apache APISIX has 17,135 GitHub stars, 2,946 forks, 235 open issues and last shipped yesterday. swag has 13,024 stars, 1,547 forks, 476 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. Apache APISIX leads on adoption by 32% (17,135 vs 13,024 stars). Apache APISIX is written in Lua under Apache-2.0; swag is written in Go under MIT. Apache APISIX has attracted 17% as many forks as stars, swag 12%. Apache APISIX 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
| Apache APISIX | swag | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 17K | ★ 13K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Lua | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-13 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.9K | ⑂ 1.5K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Apache APISIX if
- You weight community size — 17K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Lua
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick swag if
- You want the swag feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and swag fits your workflow better
About Apache APISIX
Apache APISIX is a dynamic, real time, high performance API gateway and AI gateway built on NGINX and etcd. It provides rich traffic management features, such as load balancing, dynamic upstream, canary release, circuit breaking, authentication, and observability. The project lives in the Lua and LuaJIT ecosystem, and it uses the Apache 2.0 license.
read the full Apache APISIX overview →
About swag
Swag is a command line tool that converts Go source annotations into Swagger 2.0 documentation. It lives in the Go ecosystem, is distributed under the MIT license, and is maintained by the swaggo organization. The project has been active for nine years, with the most recent push recorded in September 2026, and it carries roughly 13,000 stars and 1,545 forks on GitHub.
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Frequently asked questions
Is Apache APISIX or swag more popular?
Apache APISIX has 17,135 GitHub stars and swag has 13,024. Apache APISIX has the larger community by that measure.
Are Apache APISIX and swag free?
Both are open source. Apache APISIX is licensed under Apache-2.0 and swag under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Apache APISIX and swag?
Apache APISIX is written in Lua and swag in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Apache APISIX or swag?
Choose Apache APISIX if you want the larger community (17,135 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose swag if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.