head to head · open source
one-api vs zato
one-api has 36,940 GitHub stars, 6,867 forks, 1,036 open issues and last shipped 8 months ago. zato has 1,014 stars, 251 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped yesterday. one-api leads on adoption by 3,543% (36,940 vs 1,014 stars). one-api is written in JavaScript under MIT; zato is written in Python under AGPL-3.0. one-api has attracted 19% as many forks as stars, zato 25%. zato 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 | zato | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 37K | ★ 1.0K |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-01-09 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.9K | ⑂ 251 |
| 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 zato if
- You want the zato feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and zato 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 zato
Zato /zɑːtəʊ/ ESB, SOA, API and Cloud Integrations in Python. Zato is a Python based, open source platform that lets you automate, integrate and orchestrate business systems, APIs, workflows as well as hardware assets in industries such as airports, defense, health care, telecommunications, financial services, government and more. What does it look like in practice? Learn more Visit for the details, including: Downloads Screenshots Programming examples
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Frequently asked questions
Is one-api or zato more popular?
one-api has 36,940 GitHub stars and zato has 1,014. one-api has the larger community by that measure.
Are one-api and zato free?
Both are open source. one-api is licensed under MIT and zato under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between one-api and zato?
one-api is written in JavaScript and zato 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 zato?
Choose one-api if you want the larger community (36,940 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose zato if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.