head to head · open source
ponytail vs LiteLLM
ponytail has 141,230 GitHub stars, 7,572 forks, 270 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. LiteLLM has 59,003 stars, 11,534 forks, 5,022 open issues and last shipped yesterday. ponytail leads on adoption by 139% (141,230 vs 59,003 stars). ponytail is written in JavaScript under MIT; LiteLLM is written in Python under a custom or non-standard licence. ponytail has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, LiteLLM 20%. LiteLLM was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (llm), 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
| ponytail | LiteLLM | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 141K | ★ 59K |
| License | MIT | Custom / other |
| Written in | JavaScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-14 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 7.6K | ⑂ 12K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick ponytail if
- You weight community size — 141K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick LiteLLM if
- You want the LiteLLM feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and LiteLLM fits your workflow better
About ponytail
Ponytail is an open source agent skill for JavaScript and LLM based coding tools that makes an AI agent write the minimum working code for a task, and it is built for developers and teams running agents such as Claude Code, Codex, or Cursor against real repositories.
read the full ponytail overview →
About LiteLLM
LiteLLM is an open source AI gateway that provides a unified interface to call over 100 large language model (LLM) providers—including OpenAI, Anthropic, Azure OpenAI, Amazon Bedrock, Google VertexAI, and vLLM—using the OpenAI compatible API format. It runs as both a Python SDK for direct integration and as a standalone proxy server for centralized, team or organization wide use.
read the full LiteLLM overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is ponytail or LiteLLM more popular?
ponytail has 141,230 GitHub stars and LiteLLM has 59,003. ponytail has the larger community by that measure.
Are ponytail and LiteLLM free?
Both are open source. ponytail is licensed under MIT, and LiteLLM has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between ponytail and LiteLLM?
ponytail is written in JavaScript and LiteLLM 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, ponytail or LiteLLM?
Choose ponytail if you want the larger community (141,230 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose LiteLLM if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.