head to head · open source
fastapi vs gnostic
fastapi has 104,566 GitHub stars, 10,179 forks, 78 open issues and last shipped yesterday. gnostic has 2,311 stars, 280 forks, 119 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. fastapi leads on adoption by 4,425% (104,566 vs 2,311 stars). fastapi is written in Python under MIT; gnostic is written in Go under Apache-2.0. fastapi has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, gnostic 12%. fastapi was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (openapi, openapi3), 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 | gnostic | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 105K | ★ 2.3K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-08-10 |
| Forks | ⑂ 10K | ⑂ 280 |
| 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 gnostic if
- You want the gnostic feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and gnostic 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 gnostic
⨁ gnostic This repository contains a Go command line tool which converts JSON and YAML OpenAPI descriptions to and from equivalent Protocol Buffer representations. Protocol Buffers provide a language neutral, platform neutral, extensible mechanism for serializing structured data. gnostic 's Protocol Buffer models for the OpenAPI Specification can be used to generate code that includes data structures with explicit fields for the elements of an OpenAPI description. This makes it possible for developers to work with OpenAPI descriptions in type safe ways, which is particularly useful in strongly typed languages…
read the full gnostic overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is fastapi or gnostic more popular?
fastapi has 104,566 GitHub stars and gnostic has 2,311. fastapi has the larger community by that measure.
Are fastapi and gnostic free?
Both are open source. fastapi is licensed under MIT and gnostic under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between fastapi and gnostic?
fastapi is written in Python and gnostic in Go. 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 gnostic?
Choose fastapi if you want the larger community (104,566 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose gnostic if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.