head to head · open source
one-api vs Tyk
one-api has 36,932 GitHub stars, 6,867 forks, 1,036 open issues and last shipped 8 months ago. Tyk has 10,822 stars, 1,166 forks, 509 open issues and last shipped yesterday. one-api leads on adoption by 241% (36,932 vs 10,822 stars). one-api is written in JavaScript under MIT; Tyk is written in Go under a custom or non-standard licence. one-api has attracted 19% as many forks as stars, Tyk 11%. Tyk was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (api, 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 | Tyk | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 37K | ★ 11K |
| License | MIT | Custom / other |
| Written in | JavaScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-01-09 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.9K | ⑂ 1.2K |
| 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 Tyk if
- You want the Tyk feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and Tyk 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 Tyk
Tyk is an open source API Gateway written in Go. The GitHub description names Tyk as an Open Source API Gateway written in Go, supporting REST, GraphQL, TCP and gRPC protocols. The tagline names it a Universal API management for REST, GraphQL, gRPC and async. It lives in the developer tools, API development and testing ecosystem. It acts as a reverse proxy for microservices and cloud native workloads.
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Frequently asked questions
Is one-api or Tyk more popular?
one-api has 36,932 GitHub stars and Tyk has 10,822. one-api has the larger community by that measure.
Are one-api and Tyk free?
Both are open source. one-api is licensed under MIT, and Tyk has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between one-api and Tyk?
one-api is written in JavaScript and Tyk in Go. 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 Tyk?
Choose one-api if you want the larger community (36,932 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Tyk if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.