head to head · open source
fastapi vs xh
fastapi has 102,402 GitHub stars, 9,903 forks, 78 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. xh has 8,082 stars, 145 forks, 37 open issues and last shipped 13 days ago. fastapi leads on adoption by 1,167% (102,402 vs 8,082 stars). fastapi is written in Python under MIT; xh is written in Rust under MIT. fastapi has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, xh 2%. 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 | xh | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 102K | ★ 8.1K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-09-14 | 2026-09-05 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.9K | ⑂ 145 |
| 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 xh if
- You want the xh feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and xh 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 xh
xh is a friendly and fast command line HTTP client written in Rust that reimplements as much of HTTPie's design as possible with a focus on improved performance, and it is built for developers and API testers who send HTTP requests from a terminal.
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Frequently asked questions
Is fastapi or xh more popular?
fastapi has 102,402 GitHub stars and xh has 8,082. fastapi has the larger community by that measure.
Are fastapi and xh free?
Both are open source. fastapi is licensed under MIT and xh under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between fastapi and xh?
fastapi is written in Python and xh in Rust. 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 xh?
Choose fastapi if you want the larger community (102,402 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose xh if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.