Orbital is a semantic data gateway that connects existing APIs, databases, and event streams so agents and applications can query governed business data without hand-built integration code. It serves platform and data teams that need to expose enterprise systems to AI agents safely, without moving data or pre-building every workflow.[1][2]
Quick verdict
Teams preparing enterprise APIs, databases, and streams for AI-agent access benefit most from Orbital. Its TaxiQL engine composes data across sources at runtime with identity, field-level policy, masking, lineage, and audit on every request. The platform defaults to Business Source License 1.1 with quote-only production pricing, so strict-open-source shops should look elsewhere. If you need governed agent data access self-hosted, evaluate Orbital; if you need a high-performance edge gateway with a large public track record, choose KrakenD.[1][2][3][4]
Key features
Semantic business ontology Orbital infers a shared ontology of business concepts and relationships from connected systems in minutes, and the team validates and extends it before agents rely on it.[1]
TaxiQL declarative queries Consumers declare the data they want in TaxiQL, and the engine orchestrates calls across REST, gRPC, GraphQL, databases, and streams without resolvers or mapping files.[1][2]
Universal MCP interface Agents get one semantic interface across enterprise systems instead of one MCP server per system to build and maintain.[1]
Governed data access Every query and action enforces identity, field-level policy, value masking, lineage, and audit, even when results combine several systems.[1]
Broad source connectors Documented connectors cover REST and HTTP services, gRPC, GraphQL, relational and MongoDB databases, Kafka and RabbitMQ streams, serverless functions, and SQS/SNS pipeline sinks.[1][2]
Multi-format publishing Queries can be exposed as REST APIs, event streams, WebSocket connections, or queue integrations, with long-lived streaming queries on paid tiers.[1][2]
Git-based deployment Projects synchronize with Git repositories for version control, support push-to-deploy endpoints with automatic migrations, and can read workspace configuration from Git.[1][2]
Self-hosted observable runtimes Local runs use a Docker Compose quickstart, production uses maintained Terraform scripts or a community Helm chart for Kubernetes, and paid tiers add Prometheus metrics, dashboards, health endpoints, and multi-node resilience.[1][2]
Who will love it
Platform teams opening systems to AI agents: the governed semantic layer with policy, masking, and audit directly addresses safe agent action across systems.[1]
Microservices teams drowning in glue code: query-driven orchestration replaces per-consumer BFF code, generated clients, and YAML mapping files.[1][2]
Event-driven organizations with many consumers: custom consumer-tailored events decouple producers from consumers without bespoke ETL per feed.[1][2]
Who should avoid it
Teams requiring OSI-approved licensing end to end: the platform defaults to Business Source License 1.1, with only Taxi, language tooling, and the TaxiQL engine under Apache 2.0.[1][2]
Buyers who need public peer reviews first: with no inspected Reddit or G2 reports, there is no independent user sample to calibrate vendor claims against.[1]
Non-technical teams expecting no-code setup: semantic modeling, TaxiQL queries, and Git-based deployment are developer work despite the absence of glue code.[1][2]
Deployment and alternatives
Orbital runs on the operator's infrastructure via Docker Compose, Terraform, or Kubernetes, with production authentication, authorization, secrets handling, and Git-backed configuration documented.[1][2]
SSO with SAML/OIDC is a paid-plan feature on Business, with SSO plus SCIM provisioning on Enterprise; the Free plan includes community support only.[1]
Against KrakenD and Gravitee, Orbital trades high-performance edge-gateway throughput and portal breadth for governance-first semantic composition: choose it for agent-ready data access, not as a drop-in high-volume edge proxy.[1][2][3]
Questions worth asking
What is the best Orbital alternative for non-technical users?
Neither Orbital nor its closest open gateway rival targets non-technical users: Orbital's semantic modeling and TaxiQL queries are developer work. A non-technical team should keep its existing managed integration tooling and bring developers before evaluating Orbital.[1]
Is Orbital really no-code?
No. Orbital removes glue code such as resolvers, generated API clients, and YAML mapping files, but teams still write TaxiQL queries, annotate schemas with semantic metadata, and manage Git-based deployment.[1]
How much does Orbital cost per month?
The Free plan costs nothing and includes 250,000 calls per month, 1 user, 5 endpoints, and 1 environment with community support, as listed on the official pricing page checked October 12, 2026. Business and Enterprise pricing is quote-only through the sales contact.[1]
Can you self-host Orbital?
Yes. Local runs use the Docker Compose quickstart, and production supports maintained Terraform scripts or a community Helm chart on Kubernetes with Git-backed configuration. The Enterprise plan additionally lists air-gapped deployment; platform code defaults to Business Source License 1.1.[1][2][3]
Sources and editorial review
Source research. Reviewed on October 12, 2026. Written by Sanjib Sah. AI assisted; reviewed by a human editor.
We have not run or tested this product.
- Orbital official homepage
official · Observed October 12, 2026
Official homepage: governed context layer over APIs, databases, and streams; inferred business ontology; plan-on-demand deterministic execution; Universal MCP interface; identity, field-level policy, masking, lineage, and audit; Git workflows.
- Orbital documentation quickstart
official · Observed October 12, 2026
Official docs quickstart: Docker Compose install script for Mac, Linux, Windows; data gateway concept with semantic schemas; connecting sources; TaxiQL querying; guides; SDK-based application calls.
- Orbital production deployment guide
official · Observed October 12, 2026
Official production deployment guide: sample Docker Compose file, maintained Terraform scripts, community Helm chart for Kubernetes; production authentication, authorization, secrets, configuration, git-backed workspace files.
- Orbital official pricing
official · Observed October 12, 2026
Official pricing: Free with 250K calls per month, 1 user, 5 endpoints, 1 environment, community support; Business with 25M calls, 15 users, 100 endpoints, 3 environments, SSO/SAML/OIDC, priority support and private Slack; Enterprise with 150M+ calls, 50 users, SSO with SCIM, air-gapped deployment, 24x7 support and named contact; paid overages.
- orbitalapi/orbital repository
official · Observed October 12, 2026
Canonical GitHub repository orbitalapi/orbital: automates integration between APIs, databases, queues, and functions for BFF, API composition, and ETL pipelines; primary language TypeScript; homepage orbitalhq.com.
- orbitalapi/orbital repository metadata
official · Observed October 12, 2026
Repository API metadata: organization-owned, not a fork, not archived; created September 2022; pushed June 2026; 360 stars; 16 open issues; default branch develop; top languages TypeScript and Kotlin; license reported as Other at the monorepo root.
- orbitalapi/orbital root LICENSE
official · Observed October 12, 2026
Root LICENSE decoded from the repository contents API: multi-license monorepo with per-file, per-directory, and parent-directory rules defaulting to Business Source License 1.1.
- orbitalapi/orbital licensing FAQ
official · Observed October 12, 2026
Repository licensing FAQ: Taxi, language tooling, and the TaxiQL engine are Apache 2.0; the Orbital platform is Business Source License fair-code with a free tier and paid licenses for productivity, collaboration, performance, authoring, and competing uses.
- KrakenD official homepage
official · Observed October 12, 2026
KrakenD homepage: high-performance open-source API gateway with Community and Enterprise editions, aggregation, transformation, authentication, traffic management, and an AI gateway with MCP server support.
- Gravitee official homepage
official · Observed October 12, 2026
Gravitee homepage: platform to secure and govern agents, APIs, and events with gateways, observability, governance, developer portal, Kafka event gateway, protocol mediation, and authorization management.
Compared with these products
No explicit proprietary baseline is recorded.