head to head · open source
one-api vs api-umbrella
one-api has 36,932 GitHub stars, 6,867 forks, 1,036 open issues and last shipped 8 months ago. api-umbrella has 2,198 stars, 374 forks, 256 open issues and last shipped 20 days ago. one-api leads on adoption by 1,580% (36,932 vs 2,198 stars). one-api is written in JavaScript under MIT; api-umbrella is written in Ruby under MIT. one-api has attracted 19% as many forks as stars, api-umbrella 17%. api-umbrella was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (api-gateway), 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
| one-api | api-umbrella | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 37K | ★ 2.2K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | JavaScript | Ruby |
| Last push | 2026-01-09 | 2026-08-29 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.9K | ⑂ 374 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick one-api if
- You weight community size — 37K 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-umbrella if
- You want the api-umbrella feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Ruby
- You evaluated both and api-umbrella fits your workflow better
About one-api
One API is a self hosted LLM API management and key redistribution system that exposes many model providers through the standard OpenAI API format, aimed at developers, teams and operators who want a single endpoint, a single key model and a single quota surface across providers.
read the full one-api overview →
About api-umbrella
API Umbrella is an MIT licensed, Ruby based open source API management platform that runs as a layer above existing web service APIs so that access control, rate limiting, analytics, and unified documentation are handled by the platform instead of by each individual API's code.
read the full api-umbrella overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is one-api or api-umbrella more popular?
one-api has 36,932 GitHub stars and api-umbrella has 2,198. one-api has the larger community by that measure.
Are one-api and api-umbrella free?
Both are open source. one-api is licensed under MIT and api-umbrella under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between one-api and api-umbrella?
one-api is written in JavaScript and api-umbrella in Ruby. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, one-api or api-umbrella?
Choose one-api if you want the larger community (36,932 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose api-umbrella if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.