head to head · open source
fastapi vs nba_api
fastapi has 104,566 GitHub stars, 10,179 forks, 78 open issues and last shipped yesterday. nba_api has 3,855 stars, 726 forks, 111 open issues and last shipped 6 days ago. fastapi leads on adoption by 2,612% (104,566 vs 3,855 stars). fastapi is written in Python under MIT; nba_api is written in Python under MIT. fastapi has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, nba_api 19%. fastapi was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (python), 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 | nba_api | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 105K | ★ 3.9K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-28 |
| Forks | ⑂ 10K | ⑂ 726 |
| 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 nba_api if
- You want the nba_api feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and nba_api 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 nba_api
nba api An API Client Package to Access the APIs of NBA.com nba api is an API Client for www.nba.com . This package intends to make the APIs of NBA.com easily accessible and provide extensive documentation about them. Getting Started nba api requires Python 3.10+ along with the requests and numpy packages. While pandas is not required, it is required to work with Pandas DataFrames. NBA Official Stats NBA Live Data Additional Examples Requests/Response Options Proxy Support, Custom Headers, and Timeout Settings Return Types and Raw Responses Static Data Sets Reduce HTTP requests for common and frequently accessed…
read the full nba_api overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is fastapi or nba_api more popular?
fastapi has 104,566 GitHub stars and nba_api has 3,855. fastapi has the larger community by that measure.
Are fastapi and nba_api free?
Both are open source. fastapi is licensed under MIT and nba_api under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between fastapi and nba_api?
fastapi is written in Python and nba_api 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 nba_api?
Choose fastapi if you want the larger community (104,566 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose nba_api if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.