head to head · open source
one-api vs Zappa
one-api has 36,932 GitHub stars, 6,867 forks, 1,036 open issues and last shipped 8 months ago. Zappa has 3,695 stars, 392 forks, 23 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. one-api leads on adoption by 900% (36,932 vs 3,695 stars). one-api is written in JavaScript under MIT; Zappa is written in Python under MIT. one-api has attracted 19% as many forks as stars, Zappa 11%. Zappa 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 | Zappa | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 37K | ★ 3.7K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | JavaScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-01-09 | 2026-09-15 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.9K | ⑂ 392 |
| 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 Zappa if
- You want the Zappa feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and Zappa 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 Zappa
Zappa is an open source Python project for deploying serverless web applications and APIs on AWS. It lives in the Python web framework ecosystem and the AWS serverless ecosystem, with topic tags for Flask, Django, Pyramid, Bottle, AWS Lambda, API Gateway, and ALB. The project is distributed under the MIT license and is categorized as a developer tool for API development and testing.
read the full Zappa overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is one-api or Zappa more popular?
one-api has 36,932 GitHub stars and Zappa has 3,695. one-api has the larger community by that measure.
Are one-api and Zappa free?
Both are open source. one-api is licensed under MIT and Zappa under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between one-api and Zappa?
one-api is written in JavaScript and Zappa in Python. 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 Zappa?
Choose one-api if you want the larger community (36,932 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Zappa if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.