head to head · open source
fastapi vs serverless-express
fastapi has 102,402 GitHub stars, 9,903 forks, 78 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. serverless-express has 5,262 stars, 675 forks, 101 open issues and last shipped 5 months ago. fastapi leads on adoption by 1,846% (102,402 vs 5,262 stars). fastapi is written in Python under MIT; serverless-express is written in JavaScript under Apache-2.0. fastapi has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, serverless-express 13%. fastapi 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 | serverless-express | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 102K | ★ 5.3K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-14 | 2026-04-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.9K | ⑂ 675 |
| 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 serverless-express if
- You want the serverless-express 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 serverless-express 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 serverless-express
Serverless Express is a JavaScript library that runs Express and other Node.js web frameworks on AWS serverless technologies such as Lambda, API Gateway, Lambda@Edge, and related event sources. The package is published as @codegenie/serverless express, and the repository describes it as a tool for REST APIs and other web applications deployed as serverless functions instead of long running servers.
read the full serverless-express overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is fastapi or serverless-express more popular?
fastapi has 102,402 GitHub stars and serverless-express has 5,262. fastapi has the larger community by that measure.
Are fastapi and serverless-express free?
Both are open source. fastapi is licensed under MIT and serverless-express under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between fastapi and serverless-express?
fastapi is written in Python and serverless-express 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 serverless-express?
Choose fastapi if you want the larger community (102,402 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose serverless-express if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.