head to head · open source
Tailcall vs agent-router
Tailcall has 7,633 GitHub stars, 1,456 forks, 45 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. agent-router has 2,341 stars, 449 forks, 300 open issues and last shipped 7 days ago. Tailcall leads on adoption by 226% (7,633 vs 2,341 stars). Tailcall is written in Rust under Apache-2.0; agent-router is written in Go under Apache-2.0. Tailcall has attracted 19% as many forks as stars, agent-router 19%. Tailcall 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
| Tailcall | agent-router | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 7.6K | ★ 2.3K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Rust | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-10-29 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.5K | ⑂ 449 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Tailcall if
- You weight community size — 7.6K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick agent-router if
- You want the agent-router feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and agent-router fits your workflow better
About Tailcall
⚒️ Forge: AI Enhanced Terminal Development Environment A comprehensive coding agent that integrates AI capabilities with your development environment curl fsSL sh Table of Contents Quickstart Usage Examples Why Forge? How Forge Works: Three Modes Interactive Mode (TUI) One Shot CLI Mode ZSH Plugin Mode ( : prefix) ZSH Plugin: The : Prefix System Agents Sending Prompts Attaching Files Conversation Management Git Integration Shell Command Tools Session & Configuration Skills Customizing Agent Behavior Semantic Search (Workspace) Quick Reference: All : Commands Command Line Options Advanced Configuration Provider…
read the full Tailcall overview →
About agent-router
The open source control plane for AI and agent traffic, powered by Envoy. An Agentic AI Foundation project. Formerly Envoy AI Gateway . Documentation · Quickstart · Blog · Release Notes · Talks Agent Router Agent Router gives application teams one consistent, OpenAI compatible API for every model and tool, from hosted providers to self hosted inference and MCP servers. Platform teams keep credentials, routing, quotas, failover, and usage attribution in one place, enforced by Envoy and Envoy Gateway. Agent Router controls. Envoy carries. Formerly Envoy AI Gateway Envoy AI Gateway is now Agent Router , an Agentic…
read the full agent-router overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Tailcall or agent-router more popular?
Tailcall has 7,633 GitHub stars and agent-router has 2,341. Tailcall has the larger community by that measure.
Are Tailcall and agent-router free?
Both are open source. Tailcall is licensed under Apache-2.0 and agent-router under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Tailcall and agent-router?
Tailcall is written in Rust and agent-router in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Tailcall or agent-router?
Choose Tailcall if you want the larger community (7,633 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose agent-router if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.