head to head · open source
fastapi vs api-umbrella
fastapi has 102,402 GitHub stars, 9,903 forks, 78 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. api-umbrella has 2,198 stars, 374 forks, 256 open issues and last shipped 20 days ago. fastapi leads on adoption by 4,559% (102,402 vs 2,198 stars). fastapi is written in Python under MIT; api-umbrella is written in Ruby under MIT. fastapi has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, api-umbrella 17%. fastapi was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| fastapi | api-umbrella | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 102K | ★ 2.2K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Ruby |
| Last push | 2026-09-14 | 2026-08-29 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.9K | ⑂ 374 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick fastapi if
- You weight community size — 102K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick api-umbrella if
- You want the api-umbrella feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Ruby
- You evaluated both and api-umbrella fits your workflow better
About fastapi
FastAPI is an MIT licensed, high performance Python web framework for building APIs with standard Python type hints, aimed at Python developers and teams that need production ready HTTP services with automatic OpenAPI documentation.
read the full fastapi overview →
About api-umbrella
API Umbrella is an MIT licensed, Ruby based open source API management platform that runs as a layer above existing web service APIs so that access control, rate limiting, analytics, and unified documentation are handled by the platform instead of by each individual API's code.
read the full api-umbrella overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is fastapi or api-umbrella more popular?
fastapi has 102,402 GitHub stars and api-umbrella has 2,198. fastapi has the larger community by that measure.
Are fastapi and api-umbrella free?
Both are open source. fastapi is licensed under MIT and api-umbrella under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between fastapi and api-umbrella?
fastapi is written in Python and api-umbrella in Ruby. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, fastapi or api-umbrella?
Choose fastapi if you want the larger community (102,402 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose api-umbrella if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.