head to head · open source
fastapi vs aws-sam-cli
fastapi has 102,402 GitHub stars, 9,903 forks, 78 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. aws-sam-cli has 6,733 stars, 1,248 forks, 535 open issues and last shipped yesterday. fastapi leads on adoption by 1,421% (102,402 vs 6,733 stars). fastapi is written in Python under MIT; aws-sam-cli is written in Python under Apache-2.0. fastapi has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, aws-sam-cli 19%. aws-sam-cli was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (python), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
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 | aws-sam-cli | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 102K | ★ 6.7K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-14 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.9K | ⑂ 1.2K |
| 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 aws-sam-cli if
- You want the aws-sam-cli feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and aws-sam-cli 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 aws-sam-cli
AWS SAM CLI is an open source command line tool for building, testing, debugging, and deploying serverless applications on AWS, aimed at developers and teams working with Lambda functions, Step Functions, API Gateway, and related services.
read the full aws-sam-cli overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is fastapi or aws-sam-cli more popular?
fastapi has 102,402 GitHub stars and aws-sam-cli has 6,733. fastapi has the larger community by that measure.
Are fastapi and aws-sam-cli free?
Both are open source. fastapi is licensed under MIT and aws-sam-cli under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between fastapi and aws-sam-cli?
fastapi is written in Python and aws-sam-cli in Python. 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 aws-sam-cli?
Choose fastapi if you want the larger community (102,402 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose aws-sam-cli if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.