head to head · open source
fastapi vs litestar
fastapi has 104,566 GitHub stars, 10,179 forks, 78 open issues and last shipped yesterday. litestar has 8,534 stars, 683 forks, 343 open issues and last shipped yesterday. fastapi leads on adoption by 1,125% (104,566 vs 8,534 stars). fastapi is written in Python under MIT; litestar is written in Python under MIT. fastapi has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, litestar 8%. fastapi was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 5 topic tags (api, asyncio, openapi, pydantic), 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 | litestar | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 105K | ★ 8.5K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 10K | ⑂ 683 |
| 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 litestar if
- You want the litestar feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and litestar 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 litestar
read the full litestar overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is fastapi or litestar more popular?
fastapi has 104,566 GitHub stars and litestar has 8,534. fastapi has the larger community by that measure.
Are fastapi and litestar free?
Both are open source. fastapi is licensed under MIT and litestar under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between fastapi and litestar?
fastapi is written in Python and litestar 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 litestar?
Choose fastapi if you want the larger community (104,566 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose litestar if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.