head to head · open source
ponytail vs LLM Gateway
ponytail has 141,230 GitHub stars, 7,572 forks, 270 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. LLM Gateway has 1,643 stars, 185 forks, 77 open issues and last shipped yesterday. ponytail leads on adoption by 8,496% (141,230 vs 1,643 stars). ponytail is written in JavaScript under MIT; LLM Gateway is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence. ponytail has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, LLM Gateway 11%. LLM Gateway was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (claude, 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 | LLM Gateway | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 141K | ★ 1.6K |
| License | MIT | Custom / other |
| Written in | JavaScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-14 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 7.6K | ⑂ 185 |
| 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 LLM Gateway if
- You want the LLM Gateway feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and LLM Gateway 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 LLM Gateway
LLM Gateway is an open source API gateway for large language models. It acts as middleware between applications and model providers, and it is categorized in the AI and Machine Learning / AI Development Platforms ecosystem. The project is written in TypeScript, and its core functionality is licensed under AGPLv3, while features in the ee directory require an Enterprise license.
read the full LLM Gateway overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is ponytail or LLM Gateway more popular?
ponytail has 141,230 GitHub stars and LLM Gateway has 1,643. ponytail has the larger community by that measure.
Are ponytail and LLM Gateway free?
Both are open source. ponytail is licensed under MIT, and LLM Gateway has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between ponytail and LLM Gateway?
ponytail is written in JavaScript and LLM Gateway 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, ponytail or LLM Gateway?
Choose ponytail if you want the larger community (141,230 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose LLM Gateway if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.