# unkeyed/unkey

The Developer Platform for Modern APIs

Repository: https://github.com/unkeyed/unkey
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/unkey
Homepage: https://go.unkey.com
Language: Go
License: NOASSERTION
License Family: other
Topics: open-source, authentication, authorization, gateway, api, api-keys, rate-limiter, deployment
Last push: 2026-08-26T21:14:35+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 92/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:39:23.370411+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 87, longevity 84
- inputs: {"age_days": 1181, "days_push": 7, "days_rel": 7, "gap_med": 0, "n_releases_24m": 272}
- flags: no_license
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 5423, forks 633 (observed 2026-08-28T04:09:17.939877+00:00)

## What it is
Unkey is an open-source, source-available developer platform for modern APIs that combines instant deployments, a globally distributed gateway, API key issuance and verification, rate limiting, RBAC permissions, analytics, and audit logs in one control plane. It can be used as a hosted service or self-hosted under the AGPL license.

## Use cases
- issue and verify API keys with fast global verification
- add rate limiting to my API without running Redis
- deploy an API to production from a git push with multi-region routing
- add per-key permissions and RBAC to my API
- track API usage and latency analytics per key
- self-host an open-source alternative to Kong for API management
- keep immutable audit logs of workspace actions

## When to choose
- you want a unified platform for API deployment, authentication, rate limiting, and analytics instead of stitching together multiple vendors
- you need globally consistent rate limiting and fast API key verification
- you want an open-source, self-hostable API management platform
- you want git-based deploys with preview environments and instant rollbacks

## When to avoid
- you need a fully permissive OSS license - Unkey is AGPL source-available and not accepting external pull requests
- you only need a simple reverse proxy or load balancer without key management
- you require deep customization of the platform internals or third-party contributions
- you need on-premise deployment outside the supported cloud regions

## Facets
- artifact type: service
- maturity: active
- function: auth, authorization, rate-limiting, api-gateway, analytics, deployment, logging, monitoring
- domain: apis, backend, developer-tools, security, self-hosted, web-development
- platform: self-hosted, cloud, go
- tags: api-keys, api-management, gateway, rbac, audit-logs, multi-region, open-source, web-server

## Member repositories
- unkeyed/unkey (main) score 92

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:17.939877+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T17:56:55.988488+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/unkeyed/unkey (fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:17.939877+00:00, sha 9892bef706ca)
  - homepage: https://go.unkey.com (fetched 2026-08-29T08:52:21.847110+00:00, sha da16c2bd8261)
  - site_page: https://unkey.com/docs/introduction (fetched 2026-08-29T08:52:21.856389+00:00, sha e202e68882c3)
  - site_page: https://unkey.com/docs/build-and-deploy/regions (fetched 2026-08-29T08:52:21.858212+00:00, sha 4a66e1006743)
  - site_page: https://unkey.com/docs/observability/overview (fetched 2026-08-29T08:52:21.860168+00:00, sha 48336786e84c)
  - site_page: https://www.unkey.com/about (fetched 2026-08-29T08:52:21.861771+00:00, sha b01cc8d21cb9)
  - site_page: https://www.unkey.com/changelog (fetched 2026-08-29T08:52:21.850985+00:00, sha 9407570c3fc8)
  - site_page: https://www.unkey.com/pricing (fetched 2026-08-29T08:52:21.854578+00:00, sha 148e31d74fdb)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.