head to head · open source
one-api vs Ocelot
one-api has 36,932 GitHub stars, 6,867 forks, 1,036 open issues and last shipped 8 months ago. Ocelot has 8,715 stars, 1,683 forks, 57 open issues and last shipped yesterday. one-api leads on adoption by 324% (36,932 vs 8,715 stars). one-api is written in JavaScript under MIT; Ocelot is written in C# under MIT. one-api has attracted 19% as many forks as stars, Ocelot 19%. Ocelot 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 | Ocelot | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 37K | ★ 8.7K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | JavaScript | C# |
| Last push | 2026-01-09 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.9K | ⑂ 1.7K |
| 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 Ocelot if
- You want the Ocelot feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches C#
- You evaluated both and Ocelot 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 Ocelot
Ocelot is a .NET API gateway built as a series of ASP.NET Core middlewares arranged in a specific order. It is aimed at teams running a microservices or service oriented architecture on .NET that need a unified point of entry into their system, though the README notes it will work with anything that speaks HTTP(S) and runs on any platform that ASP.NET Core supports. The project lives in the .NET ecosystem, is written in C , and is distributed under the MIT license.
read the full Ocelot overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is one-api or Ocelot more popular?
one-api has 36,932 GitHub stars and Ocelot has 8,715. one-api has the larger community by that measure.
Are one-api and Ocelot free?
Both are open source. one-api is licensed under MIT and Ocelot under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between one-api and Ocelot?
one-api is written in JavaScript and Ocelot in C#. 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 Ocelot?
Choose one-api if you want the larger community (36,932 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Ocelot if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.