head to head · open source
one-api vs karate
one-api has 36,932 GitHub stars, 6,867 forks, 1,036 open issues and last shipped 8 months ago. karate has 8,957 stars, 2,044 forks, 18 open issues and last shipped yesterday. one-api leads on adoption by 312% (36,932 vs 8,957 stars). one-api is written in JavaScript under MIT; karate is written in Java under MIT. one-api has attracted 19% as many forks as stars, karate 23%. karate 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
| one-api | karate | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 37K | ★ 9.0K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | JavaScript | Java |
| Last push | 2026-01-09 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.9K | ⑂ 2.0K |
| 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 karate if
- You want the karate feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and karate 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 karate
Karate is an open source, MIT licensed Java framework that combines API testing, mocks, performance testing and UI automation into a single unified tool, aimed at teams that need to test APIs and services without stitching several separate tools together.
read the full karate overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is one-api or karate more popular?
one-api has 36,932 GitHub stars and karate has 8,957. one-api has the larger community by that measure.
Are one-api and karate free?
Both are open source. one-api is licensed under MIT and karate under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between one-api and karate?
one-api is written in JavaScript and karate 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, one-api or karate?
Choose one-api if you want the larger community (36,932 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose karate if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.