head to head · open source
fastapi vs mcp-context-forge
fastapi has 102,402 GitHub stars, 9,903 forks, 78 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. mcp-context-forge has 4,487 stars, 870 forks, 912 open issues and last shipped yesterday. fastapi leads on adoption by 2,182% (102,402 vs 4,487 stars). fastapi is written in Python under MIT; mcp-context-forge is written in Python under Apache-2.0. fastapi has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, mcp-context-forge 19%. mcp-context-forge was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (asyncio, fastapi), 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 | mcp-context-forge | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 102K | ★ 4.5K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-14 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.9K | ⑂ 870 |
| 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 mcp-context-forge if
- You want the mcp-context-forge feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and mcp-context-forge 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 mcp-context-forge
ContextForge is an open source AI gateway, registry, and proxy for MCP, A2A, and REST/gRPC services. It sits in front of tools, agents, and APIs, and exposes one endpoint for AI clients. The project lives in the Python developer tools ecosystem, and it is licensed under Apache 2.0.
read the full mcp-context-forge overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is fastapi or mcp-context-forge more popular?
fastapi has 102,402 GitHub stars and mcp-context-forge has 4,487. fastapi has the larger community by that measure.
Are fastapi and mcp-context-forge free?
Both are open source. fastapi is licensed under MIT and mcp-context-forge under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between fastapi and mcp-context-forge?
fastapi is written in Python and mcp-context-forge 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 mcp-context-forge?
Choose fastapi if you want the larger community (102,402 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose mcp-context-forge if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.