head to head · open source
fastapi vs platformatic
fastapi has 102,409 GitHub stars, 9,906 forks, 78 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. platformatic has 2,041 stars, 203 forks, 15 open issues and last shipped yesterday. fastapi leads on adoption by 4,918% (102,409 vs 2,041 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%. platformatic 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 | ★ 102K | ★ 2.0K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-14 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.9K | ⑂ 203 |
| 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 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 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 platformatic
Platformatic is an Apache 2.0 open source monorepo whose flagship runtime, Watt, is a Node.js application server that takes any Node.js application written in any framework and runs it as a worker thread so teams can ship faster and scale in containerized environments.
read the full platformatic overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is fastapi or platformatic more popular?
fastapi has 102,409 GitHub stars and platformatic has 2,041. 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 (102,409 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose platformatic if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.