head to head · open source
fastapi vs HTTPie
fastapi has 102,402 GitHub stars, 9,903 forks, 78 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. HTTPie has 4,037 stars, 60 forks, 197 open issues and last shipped 1.5 years ago. fastapi leads on adoption by 2,437% (102,402 vs 4,037 stars). fastapi is written in Python under MIT; HTTPie is written in various languages under a custom or non-standard licence. fastapi has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, HTTPie 1%. fastapi was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (api), 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.
← all 8884 open source comparisons
Side by side
| fastapi | HTTPie | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 102K | ★ 4.0K |
| License | MIT | Custom / other |
| Written in | Python | — |
| Last push | 2026-09-14 | 2025-03-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.9K | ⑂ 60 |
| 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 HTTPie if
- You want the HTTPie feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- You evaluated both and HTTPie 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 HTTPie
HTTPie Desktop is a cross platform API testing client published for Mac, Windows, and Linux. It sits in the HTTPie ecosystem of developer tools for API development and testing, alongside the HTTPie CLI and the HTTPie web and mobile products. The project presents itself as a client for humans who need to test REST, GraphQL, and HTTP APIs from a desktop application.
read the full HTTPie overview →
More in Developer Tools
Related comparisons
More API Development & Testing projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the API Development & Testing field.
Frequently asked questions
Is fastapi or HTTPie more popular?
fastapi has 102,402 GitHub stars and HTTPie has 4,037. fastapi has the larger community by that measure.
Are fastapi and HTTPie free?
Both are open source. fastapi is licensed under MIT, and HTTPie has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between fastapi and HTTPie?
fastapi is written in Python and HTTPie in various languages. 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 HTTPie?
Choose fastapi if you want the larger community (102,402 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose HTTPie if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.