head to head · open source
one-api vs Tailcall
one-api has 36,963 GitHub stars, 6,868 forks, 1,036 open issues and last shipped 8 months ago. Tailcall has 7,637 stars, 1,467 forks, 45 open issues and last shipped yesterday. one-api leads on adoption by 384% (36,963 vs 7,637 stars). one-api is written in JavaScript under MIT; Tailcall is written in Rust under Apache-2.0. one-api has attracted 19% as many forks as stars, Tailcall 19%. Tailcall was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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
| one-api | Tailcall | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 37K | ★ 7.6K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-01-09 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.9K | ⑂ 1.5K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick one-api if
- You weight community size — 37K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Tailcall if
- You want the Tailcall feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and Tailcall fits your workflow better
About one-api
One API is a self hosted LLM API management and key redistribution system that exposes many model providers through the standard OpenAI API format, aimed at developers, teams and operators who want a single endpoint, a single key model and a single quota surface across providers.
read the full one-api overview →
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 →
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Frequently asked questions
Is one-api or Tailcall more popular?
one-api has 36,963 GitHub stars and Tailcall has 7,637. one-api has the larger community by that measure.
Are one-api and Tailcall free?
Both are open source. one-api is licensed under MIT and Tailcall under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between one-api and Tailcall?
one-api is written in JavaScript and Tailcall in Rust. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, one-api or Tailcall?
Choose one-api if you want the larger community (36,963 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Tailcall if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.