head to head · open source
fastapi vs kgateway
fastapi has 104,566 GitHub stars, 10,179 forks, 78 open issues and last shipped yesterday. kgateway has 5,729 stars, 829 forks, 231 open issues and last shipped yesterday. fastapi leads on adoption by 1,725% (104,566 vs 5,729 stars). fastapi is written in Python under MIT; kgateway is written in Go under Apache-2.0. fastapi has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, kgateway 14%. kgateway 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 | kgateway | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 105K | ★ 5.7K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 10K | ⑂ 829 |
| 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 kgateway if
- You want the kgateway 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 kgateway 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 kgateway
The most widely deployed gateway in Kubernetes for microservices About kgateway Kgateway is the most mature and widely deployed gateway in the market today. Built on open source and open standards, kgateway is a resilient and performance oriented control plane that implements the Kubernetes Gateway API for Envoy . With a control plane that scales from lightweight microgateway deployments between services to massively parallel centralized gateways handling billions of API calls, kgateway brings omni directional API connectivity to any cloud and any environment. Use Cases Kgateway is designed for: Next Gen API…
read the full kgateway overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is fastapi or kgateway more popular?
fastapi has 104,566 GitHub stars and kgateway has 5,729. fastapi has the larger community by that measure.
Are fastapi and kgateway free?
Both are open source. fastapi is licensed under MIT and kgateway under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between fastapi and kgateway?
fastapi is written in Python and kgateway 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 kgateway?
Choose fastapi if you want the larger community (104,566 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose kgateway if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.