head to head · open source
UnKey vs Keyshade
UnKey has 5,483 GitHub stars, 636 forks, 163 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Keyshade has 768 stars, 264 forks, 78 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. UnKey leads on adoption by 614% (5,483 vs 768 stars). UnKey is written in Go under a custom or non-standard licence; Keyshade is written in TypeScript under MIT. UnKey has attracted 12% as many forks as stars, Keyshade 34%. UnKey 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
| UnKey | Keyshade | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 5.5K | ★ 768 |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | Go | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-31 |
| Forks | ⑂ 636 | ⑂ 264 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick UnKey if
- You weight community size — 5.5K 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 Keyshade if
- You want the Keyshade feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Keyshade fits your workflow better
About UnKey
Unkey The Developer Platform for Modern APIs unkey.com · Docs · Engineering · Discord What is Unkey? Unkey is the developer platform for modern APIs. We unify your infrastructure so you can ship faster: deploy APIs instantly, route traffic through global gateways, and understand usage — all in one place. Deploy — push an API to production in seconds, with zero infrastructure to manage Gateway — route, authenticate, and shape traffic through globally distributed gateways API Keys — issue, verify, and revoke keys with fast global verification Ratelimiting — globally consistent, durable ratelimiting for any…
read the full UnKey overview →
About Keyshade
Website • Documentation • Join our Community • Twitter LinkedIn Keyshade is designed to simplify the integration of your secrets and variables into your codebase. We prioritize the security of your data by leveraging the power of Public Key Encryption empowered by Elliptic Curve Cryptography for storing and transferring your secrets to your runtime environment in realtime. With keyshade, managing your configurations becomes a breeze while ensuring their security. Why Keyshade? Any application that you host on a cloud provider would need access to configurations. These configurations help you to access other APIs…
read the full Keyshade overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is UnKey or Keyshade more popular?
UnKey has 5,483 GitHub stars and Keyshade has 768. UnKey has the larger community by that measure.
Are UnKey and Keyshade free?
Both are open source. UnKey has no licence declared in this registry, and Keyshade is licensed under MIT. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between UnKey and Keyshade?
UnKey is written in Go and Keyshade in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, UnKey or Keyshade?
Choose UnKey if you want the larger community (5,483 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose Keyshade if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.