Tyk is an open-source API gateway and API management platform written in Go. It provides a fast, high-throughput gateway that can manage, secure, and analyse API traffic, with an optional dashboard user interface and a developer portal for publishing APIs to consumers. The open-source Tyk Gateway forms the core, with enterprise features split into a separate commercial edition, making it a popular self-hosted alternative to commercial API management platforms.

Key Features

• Full API gateway — routing, load balancing, rate limiting, quotas, and request/response transformation for REST, GraphQL, and WebSocket APIs.
• Flexible authentication — API keys, JSON Web Tokens (JWT), OpenID Connect (OIDC), OAuth 2.0, and mutual TLS (mTLS), applied per API.
• Analytics & visibility — detailed per-gateway and per-key analytics that show traffic, latency, and errors for every API you expose.
• Portal & key management — a developer portal and key management layer let consumers sign up, get keys, and monitor their own usage (dashboard/enterprise features).
• Versioning — manage multiple API versions and route traffic smoothly between them as you release updates.
• Go performance — a lightweight, high-concurrency architecture that handles large API traffic volumes efficiently on modest hardware.

Why Use Tyk?

Tyk is a great fit when you want a complete, self-hosted API management stack — gateway, analytics, and portal — rather than just a routing gateway. Its Go-based core is easy to deploy (single binary or Docker) and manage, and the per-API authentication and policy model keeps access control granular and visible.

Use Cases

• Publishing internal or partner APIs with keys, rate limits, and usage analytics.
• Securing microservices behind a single gateway with JWT or OAuth-based authentication.
• Serving multiple API versions side by side during version upgrades.
• Building an API programme with a developer portal where consumers self-serve keys and documentation.

Platform

Linux · Docker · Kubernetes · macOS (development) · the gateway also runs on ARM (Raspberry Pi supported).

Licence

MPL-2.0 — the open-source Tyk Gateway; enterprise gateway and dashboard components are separately licensed.

Website

tyk.io