head to head · open source
one-api vs spectral
one-api has 36,940 GitHub stars, 6,867 forks, 1,036 open issues and last shipped 8 months ago. spectral has 3,208 stars, 293 forks, 222 open issues and last shipped yesterday. one-api leads on adoption by 1,051% (36,940 vs 3,208 stars). one-api is written in JavaScript under MIT; spectral is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. one-api has attracted 19% as many forks as stars, spectral 9%. spectral 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.
← all 8884 open source comparisons
Side by side
| one-api | spectral | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 37K | ★ 3.2K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-01-09 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.9K | ⑂ 293 |
| 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 spectral if
- You want the spectral feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and spectral 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 spectral
[ ][stoplight forest] Custom Rulesets : Create custom rules to lint JSON or YAML objects Ready to use Rulesets : Validate and lint OpenAPI v2, v3.0, v3.1 & v3.2 , AsyncAPI , and Arazzo v1 Documents API Style Guides : Automated API Style Guides using rulesets improve consistency across all your APIs Ready to use Functions : Built in set of functions to help create custom rules. Functions include pattern checks, parameter checks, alphabetical ordering, a specified number of characters, provided keys are present in an object, etc. Custom Functions : Create custom functions for advanced use cases Overview 🧰 Installa…
read the full spectral 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 spectral more popular?
one-api has 36,940 GitHub stars and spectral has 3,208. one-api has the larger community by that measure.
Are one-api and spectral free?
Both are open source. one-api is licensed under MIT and spectral under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between one-api and spectral?
one-api is written in JavaScript and spectral in TypeScript. 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 spectral?
Choose one-api if you want the larger community (36,940 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose spectral if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.