head to head · open source
one-api vs light-4j
one-api has 36,940 GitHub stars, 6,867 forks, 1,036 open issues and last shipped 8 months ago. light-4j has 3,672 stars, 625 forks, 15 open issues and last shipped yesterday. one-api leads on adoption by 906% (36,940 vs 3,672 stars). one-api is written in JavaScript under MIT; light-4j is written in Java under Apache-2.0. one-api has attracted 19% as many forks as stars, light-4j 17%. light-4j 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 | light-4j | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 37K | ★ 3.7K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | Java |
| Last push | 2026-01-09 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.9K | ⑂ 625 |
| 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 light-4j if
- You want the light-4j 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 light-4j 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 light-4j
A fast, lightweight and cloud native microservices framework. Stack Overflow Google Group Gitter Chat Subreddit Youtube Channel Documentation Contribution Guide Why call it Light 4J Light means lightweight, lightning fast and shedding light on how to program with modern Java SE for cloud native deployment. Why am I doing it I had been working on the Java EE platforms since early 2000 and suffered the performance and productivity issues. In 2014, I realized that the IT industry was moving from Monolithic to Microservices and from on premise data centers to the public clouds. To reduce the production cost for my ap…
read the full light-4j overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is one-api or light-4j more popular?
one-api has 36,940 GitHub stars and light-4j has 3,672. one-api has the larger community by that measure.
Are one-api and light-4j free?
Both are open source. one-api is licensed under MIT and light-4j under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between one-api and light-4j?
one-api is written in JavaScript and light-4j 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 light-4j?
Choose one-api if you want the larger community (36,940 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose light-4j if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.