head to head · open source
Yaak vs Tailcall
Yaak has 19,243 GitHub stars, 817 forks, 19 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Tailcall has 7,637 stars, 1,467 forks, 45 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Yaak leads on adoption by 152% (19,243 vs 7,637 stars). Yaak is written in TypeScript under MIT; Tailcall is written in Rust under Apache-2.0. Yaak has attracted 4% 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
| Yaak | Tailcall | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 19K | ★ 7.6K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 817 | ⑂ 1.5K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Yaak if
- You weight community size — 19K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- 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 Yaak
Yaak is a desktop API client for REST, GraphQL, gRPC, WebSocket, and Server Sent Events. It is built with Tauri, Rust, and React, and it lives in the developer tools ecosystem for API development and testing. The project presents itself as an offline first, privacy first alternative to Postman, Insomnia, and Bruno.
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 Yaak or Tailcall more popular?
Yaak has 19,243 GitHub stars and Tailcall has 7,637. Yaak has the larger community by that measure.
Are Yaak and Tailcall free?
Both are open source. Yaak is licensed under MIT and Tailcall under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Yaak and Tailcall?
Yaak is written in TypeScript 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, Yaak or Tailcall?
Choose Yaak if you want the larger community (19,243 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Tailcall if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.