head to head · open source
OpenAPI-Specification vs hurl
OpenAPI-Specification has 31,215 GitHub stars, 9,156 forks, 80 open issues and last shipped 7 days ago. hurl has 19,203 stars, 745 forks, 200 open issues and last shipped yesterday. OpenAPI-Specification leads on adoption by 63% (31,215 vs 19,203 stars). OpenAPI-Specification is written in Markdown under Apache-2.0; hurl is written in Rust under Apache-2.0. OpenAPI-Specification has attracted 29% as many forks as stars, hurl 4%. hurl 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
| OpenAPI-Specification | hurl | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 31K | ★ 19K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Markdown | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-09-11 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.2K | ⑂ 745 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick OpenAPI-Specification if
- You weight community size — 31K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Markdown
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick hurl if
- You want the hurl feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and hurl fits your workflow better
About OpenAPI-Specification
The OpenAPI Specification (OAS) is a community driven open specification hosted within the OpenAPI Initiative, a Linux Foundation Collaborative Project. It defines a standard, programming language agnostic interface description for HTTP APIs, represented in YAML or JSON. The specification lives in the HTTP API tooling ecosystem, alongside the tools, libraries, and implementations listed in the repository's implementations document. The project source is released under the Apache 2.0 license, and its GitHub repository has accumulated roughly 31,000 stars and 9,100 forks across 13 years of activity.…
read the full OpenAPI-Specification overview →
About hurl
Hurl is a command line tool that runs HTTP requests defined in a simple plain text format. It lives in the Rust ecosystem, is licensed under Apache 2.0, and is powered under the hood by libcurl, so it inherits curl's transfer behavior while adding a readable file format on top. A single Hurl file can chain multiple requests, capture values from one response, and reuse those values in later requests, which makes it possible to describe an entire HTTP session rather than a single call. The project has been on GitHub for six years and carries roughly 19,000 stars and 744 forks.
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Frequently asked questions
Is OpenAPI-Specification or hurl more popular?
OpenAPI-Specification has 31,215 GitHub stars and hurl has 19,203. OpenAPI-Specification has the larger community by that measure.
Are OpenAPI-Specification and hurl free?
Both are open source. OpenAPI-Specification is licensed under Apache-2.0 and hurl under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between OpenAPI-Specification and hurl?
OpenAPI-Specification is written in Markdown and hurl 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, OpenAPI-Specification or hurl?
Choose OpenAPI-Specification if you want the larger community (31,215 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose hurl if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.