head to head · open source
fastapi vs api-umbrella
fastapi has 104,566 GitHub stars, 10,179 forks, 78 open issues and last shipped yesterday. api-umbrella has 2,203 stars, 375 forks, 256 open issues and last shipped yesterday. fastapi leads on adoption by 4,647% (104,566 vs 2,203 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 | ★ 105K | ★ 2.2K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Ruby |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 10K | ⑂ 375 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick fastapi if
- You weight community size — 105K 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 framework, high performance, easy to learn, fast to code, ready for production Documentation : Source Code : FastAPI is a modern, fast (high performance), web framework for building APIs with Python based on standard Python type hints. The key features are: Fast : Very high performance, on par with NodeJS and Go (thanks to Starlette and Pydantic). One of the fastest Python frameworks available. Fast to code : Increase the speed to develop features by about 200% to 300%. Fewer bugs : Reduce about 40% of human (developer) induced errors. Intuitive : Great editor support. Completion everywhere. Less time…
read the full fastapi overview →
About api-umbrella
API Umbrella What Is API Umbrella? API Umbrella is an open source API management platform for exposing web service APIs. The basic goal of API Umbrella is to make life easier for both API creators and API consumers. How? Make life easier for API creators: Allow API creators to focus on building APIs. Standardize the boring stuff: APIs can assume the boring stuff (access control, rate limiting, analytics, etc.) is already taken care if the API is being accessed, so common functionality doesn't need to be implemented in the API code. Easy to add: API Umbrella acts as a layer above your APIs, so your API code…
read the full api-umbrella overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is fastapi or api-umbrella more popular?
fastapi has 104,566 GitHub stars and api-umbrella has 2,203. 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 (104,566 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose api-umbrella if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.