head to head · open source
fastapi vs django-ninja
fastapi has 104,566 GitHub stars, 10,179 forks, 78 open issues and last shipped yesterday. django-ninja has 9,229 stars, 624 forks, 224 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. fastapi leads on adoption by 1,033% (104,566 vs 9,229 stars). fastapi is written in Python under MIT; django-ninja is written in Python under MIT. fastapi has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, django-ninja 7%. fastapi was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (openapi, pydantic, 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 | django-ninja | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 105K | ★ 9.2K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-01 |
| Forks | ⑂ 10K | ⑂ 624 |
| 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 django-ninja if
- You want the django-ninja feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and django-ninja 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 django-ninja
^ Please read ^ Fast to learn, fast to code, fast to run Django Ninja Fast Django REST Framework Django Ninja is a web framework for building APIs with Django and Python 3.6+ type hints . Key features: Easy : Designed to be easy to use and intuitive. FAST execution : Very high performance thanks to Pydantic and async support . Fast to code : Type hints and automatic docs lets you focus only on business logic. Standards based : Based on the open standards for APIs: OpenAPI (previously known as Swagger) and JSON Schema . Django friendly : (obviously) has good integration with the Django core and ORM. Production…
read the full django-ninja overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is fastapi or django-ninja more popular?
fastapi has 104,566 GitHub stars and django-ninja has 9,229. fastapi has the larger community by that measure.
Are fastapi and django-ninja free?
Both are open source. fastapi is licensed under MIT and django-ninja under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between fastapi and django-ninja?
fastapi is written in Python and django-ninja 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 django-ninja?
Choose fastapi if you want the larger community (104,566 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose django-ninja if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.