head to head · open source
Tyk vs macai
Tyk has 10,873 GitHub stars, 1,169 forks, 509 open issues and last shipped yesterday. macai has 938 stars, 76 forks, 44 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. Tyk leads on adoption by 1,059% (10,873 vs 938 stars). Tyk is written in Go under a custom or non-standard licence; macai is written in Swift under Apache-2.0. Tyk has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, macai 8%. Tyk was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (ai, 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
| Tyk | macai | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 11K | ★ 938 |
| License | Custom / other | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Swift |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-08-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.2K | ⑂ 76 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Tyk if
- You weight community size — 11K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick macai if
- You want the macai feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Swift
- You evaluated both and macai fits your workflow better
About Tyk
Documentation Forum Blog About Tyk API Gateway Tyk Gateway is the cloud native, open source, enterprise ready API Gateway supporting REST, GraphQL, TCP and gRPC protocols. Built from the ground up, as the fastest API Gateway on the planet since 2014. Tyk Gateway is provided ‘Batteries included’, with no feature lockout. Enabling your organization to rate limit, auth, gather analytics, apply microservice patterns and more with ease. Tyk runs natively on Kubernetes , if you prefer, thanks to the Tyk Kubernetes Operator Everything you need to manage APIs. Follow the simple Get Started guide below 👇 The Enterprise…
About macai
macai macai (macOS AI) is a simple yet powerful native macOS AI chat client that supports most AI providers: ChatGPT, Claude, xAI (Grok), Google Gemini, Perplexity, Ollama, OpenRouter, and almost any OpenAI compatible APIs. Table of Contents Downloads Manual Homebrew Contributions Why macai Run with ChatGPT, Claude, xAI or Google Gemini Run with Ollama System requirements Project status Build from source iCloud Sync Configuration License Downloads Manual Download latest universal binary, notarized by Apple. Homebrew Install macai cask with homebrew: brew install cask macai Contributions Contributions are…
read the full macai overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Tyk or macai more popular?
Tyk has 10,873 GitHub stars and macai has 938. Tyk has the larger community by that measure.
Are Tyk and macai free?
Both are open source. Tyk has no licence declared in this registry, and macai is licensed under Apache-2.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Tyk and macai?
Tyk is written in Go and macai in Swift. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Tyk or macai?
Choose Tyk if you want the larger community (10,873 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose macai if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.