head to head · open source
fastapi vs platformatic
fastapi has 104,542 GitHub stars, 10,173 forks, 78 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. platformatic has 2,134 stars, 211 forks, 15 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. fastapi leads on adoption by 4,799% (104,542 vs 2,134 stars). fastapi is written in Python under MIT; platformatic is written in JavaScript under Apache-2.0. fastapi has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, platformatic 10%. fastapi was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (openapi), 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 | platformatic | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 105K | ★ 2.1K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-01 | 2026-11-01 |
| Forks | ⑂ 10K | ⑂ 211 |
| 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 platformatic if
- You want the platformatic feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and platformatic 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 platformatic
Watt The Node.js Application Server Watt takes any Node.js application, written in any framework, and runs it as a worker thread so you can ship faster and scale smarter in any containerized environment. What problems was Watt built to solve? Speed and Stability at Scale When run as a single thread, Node.js fails to efficiently consume the CPU allocated to it, causing the event loop to become blocked during periods of heavy traffic, which leads to spikes in latency and crashes. Even worse, because that single thread is also responsible for all your key telemetry data, you lose critical observability when your…
read the full platformatic overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is fastapi or platformatic more popular?
fastapi has 104,542 GitHub stars and platformatic has 2,134. fastapi has the larger community by that measure.
Are fastapi and platformatic free?
Both are open source. fastapi is licensed under MIT and platformatic under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between fastapi and platformatic?
fastapi is written in Python and platformatic in JavaScript. 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 platformatic?
Choose fastapi if you want the larger community (104,542 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose platformatic if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.