head to head · open source
Bruno vs api-gateway
Bruno has 47,992 GitHub stars, 3,068 forks, 1,831 open issues and last shipped yesterday. api-gateway has 656 stars, 186 forks, 29 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Bruno leads on adoption by 7,216% (47,992 vs 656 stars). Bruno is written in JavaScript under MIT; api-gateway is written in Java under Apache-2.0. Bruno has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, api-gateway 28%. api-gateway 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 | api-gateway | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 48K | ★ 656 |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | Java |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.1K | ⑂ 186 |
| 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 api-gateway if
- You want the api-gateway feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and api-gateway 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…
read the full Bruno overview →
About api-gateway
Membrane API Gateway for REST, OpenAPI, and GraphQL with first class Legacy Support for XML, SOAP, and WSDL Built on the Java platform , Membrane bridges legacy and modern APIs. It supports XML to JSON transformation, WSDL to OpenAPI conversion,SOAP to REST integration, and validation against OpenAPI and WSDL . For modern APIs, Membrane supports technologies such as OAuth 2, JWT, and AI, along with a broad range of transformation, and observability features. It is easy to set up and deploy, either as a container or as a Java application. Try Membrane in 5 Minutes Start the API Gateway Run Membrane as a container…
read the full api-gateway overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Bruno or api-gateway more popular?
Bruno has 47,992 GitHub stars and api-gateway has 656. Bruno has the larger community by that measure.
Are Bruno and api-gateway free?
Both are open source. Bruno is licensed under MIT and api-gateway under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Bruno and api-gateway?
Bruno is written in JavaScript and api-gateway in Java. 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 api-gateway?
Choose Bruno if you want the larger community (47,992 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose api-gateway if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.