head to head · open source
fastapi vs hurl
fastapi has 104,566 GitHub stars, 10,179 forks, 78 open issues and last shipped yesterday. hurl has 19,296 stars, 752 forks, 200 open issues and last shipped yesterday. fastapi leads on adoption by 442% (104,566 vs 19,296 stars). fastapi is written in Python under MIT; hurl is written in Rust under Apache-2.0. fastapi has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, hurl 4%. hurl 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 | hurl | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 105K | ★ 19K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 10K | ⑂ 752 |
| 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 hurl if
- You want the hurl feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and hurl 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 hurl
What's Hurl? Hurl is a command line tool that runs HTTP requests defined in a simple plain text format . It can chain requests, capture values and evaluate queries on headers and body response. Hurl is very versatile: it can be used for both fetching data and testing HTTP sessions. Hurl makes it easy to work with HTML content, REST / SOAP / GraphQL APIs, or any other XML / JSON based APIs. Chaining multiple requests is easy: Also an HTTP Test Tool Hurl can run HTTP requests but can also be used to test HTTP responses . Different types of queries and predicates are supported, from [XPath] and [JSONPath] on body…
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Frequently asked questions
Is fastapi or hurl more popular?
fastapi has 104,566 GitHub stars and hurl has 19,296. fastapi has the larger community by that measure.
Are fastapi and hurl free?
Both are open source. fastapi is licensed under MIT and hurl under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between fastapi and hurl?
fastapi is written in Python and hurl in Rust. 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 hurl?
Choose fastapi if you want the larger community (104,566 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose hurl if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.