head to head · open source
fastapi vs runn
fastapi has 102,402 GitHub stars, 9,903 forks, 78 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. runn has 649 stars, 58 forks, 27 open issues and last shipped yesterday. fastapi leads on adoption by 15,678% (102,402 vs 649 stars). fastapi is written in Python under MIT; runn is written in Go under MIT. fastapi has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, runn 9%. runn was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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 | runn | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 102K | ★ 649 |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-14 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.9K | ⑂ 58 |
| 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 runn if
- You want the runn feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and runn 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 runn
runn is a Go package and command line tool that runs operations following a scenario, built for developers, testers, and automation engineers who need scenario based testing, workflow automation, or a test helper inside Go test suites.
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Frequently asked questions
Is fastapi or runn more popular?
fastapi has 102,402 GitHub stars and runn has 649. fastapi has the larger community by that measure.
Are fastapi and runn free?
Both are open source. fastapi is licensed under MIT and runn under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between fastapi and runn?
fastapi is written in Python and runn in Go. 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 runn?
Choose fastapi if you want the larger community (102,402 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose runn if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.