head to head · open source
Bruno vs Apache APISIX
Bruno has 47,992 GitHub stars, 3,068 forks, 1,831 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Apache APISIX has 17,289 stars, 2,989 forks, 235 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Bruno leads on adoption by 178% (47,992 vs 17,289 stars). Bruno is written in JavaScript under MIT; Apache APISIX is written in Lua under Apache-2.0. Bruno has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, Apache APISIX 17%. Bruno 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
| Bruno | Apache APISIX | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 48K | ★ 17K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | Lua |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.1K | ⑂ 3.0K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Bruno if
- You weight community size — 48K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- 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 Bruno
Bruno Opensource IDE for exploring and testing APIs. English Українська Русский Türkçe Deutsch Français Português (BR) 한국어 বাংলা Español Italiano Română Polski 简体中文 正體中文 العربية 日本語 ქართული Nederlands فارسی Bruno is a new and innovative API client, aimed at revolutionizing the status quo represented by Postman and similar tools out there. Bruno stores your collections directly in a folder on your filesystem. We use a plain text markup language, Bru, to save information about API requests. You can use Git or any version control of your choice to collaborate over your API collections. Bruno is offline only. There…
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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 Bruno or Apache APISIX more popular?
Bruno has 47,992 GitHub stars and Apache APISIX has 17,289. Bruno has the larger community by that measure.
Are Bruno and Apache APISIX free?
Both are open source. Bruno is licensed under MIT and Apache APISIX under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Bruno and Apache APISIX?
Bruno is written in JavaScript 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, Bruno or Apache APISIX?
Choose Bruno if you want the larger community (47,992 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Apache APISIX if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.