head to head · open source
Bruno vs aktools
Bruno has 47,065 GitHub stars, 2,895 forks, 1,831 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. aktools has 1,491 stars, 242 forks, 2 open issues and last shipped 11 months ago. Bruno leads on adoption by 3,057% (47,065 vs 1,491 stars). Bruno is written in JavaScript under MIT; aktools is written in Python under MIT. Bruno has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, aktools 16%. Bruno was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (openapi), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
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
| Bruno | aktools | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 47K | ★ 1.5K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | JavaScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2025-10-29 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.9K | ⑂ 242 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Bruno if
- You weight community size — 47K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick aktools if
- You want the aktools feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and aktools fits your workflow better
About Bruno
Bruno is a lightweight, open source API client and IDE for exploring and testing APIs, built for developers and teams who want their request collections stored as plain text in a folder on their own filesystem rather than in a vendor's cloud.
read the full Bruno overview →
About aktools
AKTools is an MIT licensed Python package that turns the AKShare financial data library into an HTTP API, built for AKShare users who need Chinese stock and financial data from languages and tools other than Python.
read the full aktools overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Bruno or aktools more popular?
Bruno has 47,065 GitHub stars and aktools has 1,491. Bruno has the larger community by that measure.
Are Bruno and aktools free?
Both are open source. Bruno is licensed under MIT and aktools under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Bruno and aktools?
Bruno is written in JavaScript and aktools in Python. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Bruno or aktools?
Choose Bruno if you want the larger community (47,065 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose aktools if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.