head to head · open source
one-api vs serverless-express
one-api has 36,932 GitHub stars, 6,867 forks, 1,036 open issues and last shipped 8 months ago. serverless-express has 5,262 stars, 675 forks, 101 open issues and last shipped 5 months ago. one-api leads on adoption by 602% (36,932 vs 5,262 stars). one-api is written in JavaScript under MIT; serverless-express is written in JavaScript under Apache-2.0. one-api has attracted 19% as many forks as stars, serverless-express 13%. serverless-express 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 | serverless-express | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 37K | ★ 5.3K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-01-09 | 2026-04-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.9K | ⑂ 675 |
| 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 serverless-express if
- You want the serverless-express feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and serverless-express 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 serverless-express
Serverless Express is a JavaScript library that runs Express and other Node.js web frameworks on AWS serverless technologies such as Lambda, API Gateway, Lambda@Edge, and related event sources. The package is published as @codegenie/serverless express, and the repository describes it as a tool for REST APIs and other web applications deployed as serverless functions instead of long running servers.
read the full serverless-express overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is one-api or serverless-express more popular?
one-api has 36,932 GitHub stars and serverless-express has 5,262. one-api has the larger community by that measure.
Are one-api and serverless-express free?
Both are open source. one-api is licensed under MIT and serverless-express under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between one-api and serverless-express?
one-api is written in JavaScript and serverless-express in JavaScript. 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 serverless-express?
Choose one-api if you want the larger community (36,932 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose serverless-express if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.