head to head · open source
one-api vs litestar
one-api has 36,932 GitHub stars, 6,867 forks, 1,036 open issues and last shipped 8 months ago. litestar has 8,467 stars, 646 forks, 343 open issues and last shipped yesterday. one-api leads on adoption by 336% (36,932 vs 8,467 stars). one-api is written in JavaScript under MIT; litestar is written in Python under MIT. one-api has attracted 19% as many forks as stars, litestar 8%. litestar was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (api), 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.
← all 8884 open source comparisons
Side by side
| one-api | litestar | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 37K | ★ 8.5K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | JavaScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-01-09 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.9K | ⑂ 646 |
| 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 litestar if
- You want the litestar feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and litestar 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 litestar
Litestar is an open source ASGI framework for Python, distributed under the MIT license and hosted in the litestar org GitHub organization. It describes itself as light, flexible and extensible, and it is built to scale. The project has been in development for five years, has accumulated 8,462 stars and 642 forks, and its most recent push was on 11 September 2026. Documentation lives at docs.litestar.dev, and the project publishes releases through PyPI.
read the full litestar overview →
More in Developer Tools
Related comparisons
More API Development & Testing projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the API Development & Testing field.
Frequently asked questions
Is one-api or litestar more popular?
one-api has 36,932 GitHub stars and litestar has 8,467. one-api has the larger community by that measure.
Are one-api and litestar free?
Both are open source. one-api is licensed under MIT and litestar under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between one-api and litestar?
one-api is written in JavaScript and litestar in Python. 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 litestar?
Choose one-api if you want the larger community (36,932 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose litestar if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.