What is Unkey used for?

Unkey is a developer platform for APIs that combines API key management, rate limiting, gateways and instant deployment in one place. It is a good fit for adding API keys to a public API, rate limiting API consumers and managing access to paid API tiers.

Is Unkey open source?

Yes. Unkey is open source under a custom licence. Its source code is on GitHub at unkeyed/unkey and is written mainly in Go.

Yes. Unkey is open source, so the software itself is free to use under the terms of its own licence. A managed cloud version is also available, with paid plans from $5 per month.

Can I self-host Unkey?

Yes. Unkey can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.

What is Unkey an alternative to?

Unkey is an open-source alternative to Zuplo. Other open-source alternatives to Zuplo include Tyk, Kong and Apache APISIX.

Is Unkey actively maintained?

Yes. The most recent commit to Unkey was on 2 October 2026. The project has 5.5k stars on GitHub.

Unkey: open-source alternative to Zuplo

About Unkey

Unkey is a developer platform for modern APIs that brings several infrastructure concerns together. Its stated aim is to let teams ship faster by deploying APIs instantly, routing traffic through gateways and understanding usage, instead of stitching together separate services.

The README lists capabilities including deployment of an API to production with no infrastructure to manage, globally distributed gateways that route, authenticate and shape traffic, API keys that can be issued, verified and revoked with fast global verification, and globally consistent, durable rate limiting for any identifier. Permissions and role-based access control also feature, and the repository topics add authentication, authorization and API gateway.

The backend is written in Go and the repository license is shown as 'Other', so check the terms before self-hosting or redistributing. Unkey is offered as a hosted platform with documentation, a Discord community and an engineering blog. It suits teams that sell or protect APIs and need key management and rate limits without building them.

Key features

API key issuing, verification and revocation
Globally consistent rate limiting
Gateways for routing and authentication
Instant API deployment
Permissions and role-based access control
Usage analytics for APIs

Good fit for

→Adding API keys to a public API
→Rate limiting API consumers
→Managing access to paid API tiers

Built with: Go
Tags: api-keys; rate-limiting; api-gateway; authentication; authorization; api-management; golang

Unkey: questions and answers

What is Unkey used for?: Unkey is a developer platform for APIs that combines API key management, rate limiting, gateways and instant deployment in one place. It is a good fit for adding API keys to a public API, rate limiting API consumers and managing access to paid API tiers.
Is Unkey open source?: Yes. Unkey is open source under a custom licence. Its source code is on GitHub at unkeyed/unkey and is written mainly in Go.
Is Unkey free?: Yes. Unkey is open source, so the software itself is free to use under the terms of its own licence. A managed cloud version is also available, with paid plans from $5 per month.
Can I self-host Unkey?: Yes. Unkey can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.
What is Unkey an alternative to?: Unkey is an open-source alternative to Zuplo. Other open-source alternatives to Zuplo include Tyk, Kong and Apache APISIX.
Is Unkey actively maintained?: Yes. The most recent commit to Unkey was on 2 October 2026. The project has 5.5k stars on GitHub.