head to head · open source
Tailcall vs gpt-load
Tailcall has 7,637 GitHub stars, 1,467 forks, 45 open issues and last shipped yesterday. gpt-load has 6,865 stars, 759 forks, 21 open issues and last shipped today. Tailcall leads on adoption by 11% (7,637 vs 6,865 stars). Tailcall is written in Rust under Apache-2.0; gpt-load is written in Go under MIT. Tailcall has attracted 19% as many forks as stars, gpt-load 11%. gpt-load 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 | gpt-load | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 7.6K | ★ 6.9K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Rust | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2026-09-20 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.5K | ⑂ 759 |
| 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 gpt-load if
- You want the gpt-load feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and gpt-load fits your workflow better
About Tailcall
Tailcall is an Apache 2.0 licensed, Rust based developer tool listed in this registry whose repository (tailcallhq/forgecode) and README present it as Forge, an AI enhanced terminal development environment: a command line coding agent that works against Claude, GPT, O Series, Grok, Deepseek, Gemini and, per its own description, more than 300 other models.
read the full Tailcall overview →
About gpt-load
GPT Load is a self hosted AI gateway written in Go and released under the MIT license. It gives applications a single entry point — one base URL and one AccessKey — for reaching many AI providers at once. Providers, accounts, credentials, models, and routing policy are configured in the bundled management UI rather than in application code.
read the full gpt-load overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Tailcall or gpt-load more popular?
Tailcall has 7,637 GitHub stars and gpt-load has 6,865. Tailcall has the larger community by that measure.
Are Tailcall and gpt-load free?
Both are open source. Tailcall is licensed under Apache-2.0 and gpt-load under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Tailcall and gpt-load?
Tailcall is written in Rust and gpt-load 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 gpt-load?
Choose Tailcall if you want the larger community (7,637 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose gpt-load if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.