head to head · open source
Yaak vs Tyk
Yaak has 19,224 GitHub stars, 813 forks, 19 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Tyk has 10,822 stars, 1,166 forks, 509 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Yaak leads on adoption by 78% (19,224 vs 10,822 stars). Yaak is written in TypeScript under MIT; Tyk is written in Go under a custom or non-standard licence. Yaak has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, Tyk 11%. Yaak was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (graphql, grpc), 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
| Yaak | Tyk | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 19K | ★ 11K |
| License | MIT | Custom / other |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 813 | ⑂ 1.2K |
| 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 Tyk if
- You want the Tyk feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and Tyk 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 Tyk
Tyk is an open source API Gateway written in Go. The GitHub description names Tyk as an Open Source API Gateway written in Go, supporting REST, GraphQL, TCP and gRPC protocols. The tagline names it a Universal API management for REST, GraphQL, gRPC and async. It lives in the developer tools, API development and testing ecosystem. It acts as a reverse proxy for microservices and cloud native workloads.
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Frequently asked questions
Is Yaak or Tyk more popular?
Yaak has 19,224 GitHub stars and Tyk has 10,822. Yaak has the larger community by that measure.
Are Yaak and Tyk free?
Both are open source. Yaak is licensed under MIT, and Tyk has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Yaak and Tyk?
Yaak is written in TypeScript and Tyk 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, Yaak or Tyk?
Choose Yaak if you want the larger community (19,224 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Tyk if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.