head to head · open source
UnKey vs Phase
UnKey has 5,483 GitHub stars, 636 forks, 163 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Phase has 942 stars, 78 forks, 78 open issues and last shipped yesterday. UnKey leads on adoption by 482% (5,483 vs 942 stars). UnKey is written in Go under a custom or non-standard licence; Phase is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence. UnKey has attracted 12% as many forks as stars, Phase 8%. UnKey was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (open-source), 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
| UnKey | Phase | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 5.5K | ★ 942 |
| License | Custom / other | Custom / other |
| Written in | Go | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 636 | ⑂ 78 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick UnKey if
- You weight community size — 5.5K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Phase if
- You want the Phase feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Phase fits your workflow better
About UnKey
Unkey The Developer Platform for Modern APIs unkey.com · Docs · Engineering · Discord What is Unkey? Unkey is the developer platform for modern APIs. We unify your infrastructure so you can ship faster: deploy APIs instantly, route traffic through global gateways, and understand usage — all in one place. Deploy — push an API to production in seconds, with zero infrastructure to manage Gateway — route, authenticate, and shape traffic through globally distributed gateways API Keys — issue, verify, and revoke keys with fast global verification Ratelimiting — globally consistent, durable ratelimiting for any…
read the full UnKey overview →
About Phase
Repos Docs CLI Node SDK Python SDK Golang SDK Helm Chart Kubernetes Operator Terraform Provider Open source platform for fast moving engineering teams to secure and deploy application secrets — from development to production. Phase Console Demo 📦 SDKs : SDKs for integrating Phase with various programming languages and frameworks Explore Phase Console CLI Explore Phase CLI Getting started Check out the Quickstart Guides Use Phase Cloud The quickest and most reliable way to get started is by signing up on the Phase Console. Self host Phase
read the full Phase overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is UnKey or Phase more popular?
UnKey has 5,483 GitHub stars and Phase has 942. UnKey has the larger community by that measure.
Are UnKey and Phase free?
Neither UnKey nor Phase declares a licence in this registry, so check each project's own repository before relying on either for a commercial use. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between UnKey and Phase?
UnKey is written in Go and Phase 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, UnKey or Phase?
Choose UnKey if you want the larger community (5,483 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose Phase if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.