head to head · open source
one-api vs tailchat
one-api has 36,940 GitHub stars, 6,867 forks, 1,036 open issues and last shipped 8 months ago. tailchat has 3,624 stars, 397 forks, 128 open issues and last shipped 27 days ago. one-api leads on adoption by 919% (36,940 vs 3,624 stars). one-api is written in JavaScript under MIT; tailchat is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. one-api has attracted 19% as many forks as stars, tailchat 11%. tailchat 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 | tailchat | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 37K | ★ 3.6K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-01-09 | 2026-08-22 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.9K | ⑂ 397 |
| 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 tailchat if
- You want the tailchat 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 tailchat 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 tailchat
Tailchat 简体中文 Next generation noIM application in your own workspace Not only another Slack , Discord , Rocket.Chat .... If you are interested in the concept of noIM , welcome to read my blog: It's time to officially step into the era of noIM Official Documentation: Nightly version Try it online: Nightly version is the automatic compile version, that means, every commit code will be automatically compiled. The reliability and stability of the data are not guaranteed, you can deploy with stable version with docker images or github release page Motivation At present, the existing IM applications only focus on chatt…
read the full tailchat overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is one-api or tailchat more popular?
one-api has 36,940 GitHub stars and tailchat has 3,624. one-api has the larger community by that measure.
Are one-api and tailchat free?
Both are open source. one-api is licensed under MIT and tailchat under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between one-api and tailchat?
one-api is written in JavaScript and tailchat 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 tailchat?
Choose one-api if you want the larger community (36,940 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose tailchat if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.