head to head · open source
fastapi vs portman
fastapi has 102,402 GitHub stars, 9,903 forks, 78 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. portman has 685 stars, 62 forks, 56 open issues and last shipped 9 days ago. fastapi leads on adoption by 14,849% (102,402 vs 685 stars). fastapi is written in Python under MIT; portman is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. fastapi has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, portman 9%. fastapi was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (api, 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 | portman | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 102K | ★ 685 |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-14 | 2026-09-09 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.9K | ⑂ 62 |
| 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 portman if
- You want the portman feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and portman 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 portman
Portman is a TypeScript command line tool that ports an OpenAPI document into a Postman collection. It reads the request and response properties defined in an OpenAPI specification and uses them to build the collection, then injects contract and variation tests into the generated requests with a minimum of configuration. The project lives in the API development and testing ecosystem, bridging the contract first OpenAPI world and the Postman collection format. It is published under the Apache 2.0 license, carries 685 stars and 62 forks, and its repository is five years old with 56 open issues.
read the full portman overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is fastapi or portman more popular?
fastapi has 102,402 GitHub stars and portman has 685. fastapi has the larger community by that measure.
Are fastapi and portman free?
Both are open source. fastapi is licensed under MIT and portman under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between fastapi and portman?
fastapi is written in Python and portman in TypeScript. 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 portman?
Choose fastapi if you want the larger community (102,402 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose portman if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.