head to head · open source
Yaak vs Tyk
Yaak has 19,399 GitHub stars, 840 forks, 19 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Tyk has 10,873 stars, 1,169 forks, 509 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Yaak leads on adoption by 78% (19,399 vs 10,873 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%. Tyk 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Yaak | Tyk | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 19K | ★ 11K |
| License | MIT | Custom / other |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 840 | ⑂ 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 ➟ Desktop API Client 💫 A fast, privacy first API client for REST, GraphQL, SSE, WebSocket, and gRPC – built with Tauri, Rust, and React. Development is funded by community purchased licenses . You can also become a sponsor to have your logo appear below. 💖 Features Yaak is an offline first API client designed to stay out of your way while giving you everything you need when you need it. Built with Tauri, Rust, and React, it’s fast, lightweight, and private. No telemetry, no VC funding, and no cloud lock in. 🌐 Work with any API Import collections from Postman, Insomnia, OpenAPI, Swagger, or Curl. Send…
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…
More in Developer Tools
Related comparisons
More API Development & Testing projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the API Development & Testing field.
Frequently asked questions
Is Yaak or Tyk more popular?
Yaak has 19,399 GitHub stars and Tyk has 10,873. 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 (19,399 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Tyk if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.