head to head · open source
fastapi vs shenyu
fastapi has 102,402 GitHub stars, 9,903 forks, 78 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. shenyu has 8,836 stars, 3,072 forks, 565 open issues and last shipped yesterday. fastapi leads on adoption by 1,059% (102,402 vs 8,836 stars). fastapi is written in Python under MIT; shenyu is written in Java under Apache-2.0. fastapi has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, shenyu 35%. shenyu 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 | shenyu | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 102K | ★ 8.8K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | Java |
| Last push | 2026-09-14 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.9K | ⑂ 3.1K |
| 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 shenyu if
- You want the shenyu feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and shenyu 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 shenyu
Apache ShenYu is a Java native, Apache licensed API gateway for service proxy, protocol conversion, and API governance across microservices.
read the full shenyu overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is fastapi or shenyu more popular?
fastapi has 102,402 GitHub stars and shenyu has 8,836. fastapi has the larger community by that measure.
Are fastapi and shenyu free?
Both are open source. fastapi is licensed under MIT and shenyu under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between fastapi and shenyu?
fastapi is written in Python and shenyu in Java. 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 shenyu?
Choose fastapi if you want the larger community (102,402 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose shenyu if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.