head to head · open source
OpenAPI-Specification vs fastapi_mcp
OpenAPI-Specification has 31,225 GitHub stars, 9,155 forks, 80 open issues and last shipped 9 days ago. fastapi_mcp has 12,007 stars, 969 forks, 169 open issues and last shipped 10 months ago. OpenAPI-Specification leads on adoption by 160% (31,225 vs 12,007 stars). OpenAPI-Specification is written in Markdown under Apache-2.0; fastapi_mcp is written in Python under MIT. OpenAPI-Specification has attracted 29% as many forks as stars, fastapi_mcp 8%. OpenAPI-Specification was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (openapi), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
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 | fastapi_mcp | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 31K | ★ 12K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Markdown | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-11 | 2025-11-24 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.2K | ⑂ 969 |
| 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 fastapi_mcp if
- You want the fastapi_mcp feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and fastapi_mcp 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 fastapi_mcp
FastAPI MCP is an MIT licensed Python library from Tadata that exposes the endpoints of an existing FastAPI application as Model Context Protocol (MCP) tools, so MCP clients such as Claude and Cursor can call a team's own API, and it is built for Python backend developers who already run FastAPI services and want agent access without hand writing a separate MCP server.
read the full fastapi_mcp overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is OpenAPI-Specification or fastapi_mcp more popular?
OpenAPI-Specification has 31,225 GitHub stars and fastapi_mcp has 12,007. OpenAPI-Specification has the larger community by that measure.
Are OpenAPI-Specification and fastapi_mcp free?
Both are open source. OpenAPI-Specification is licensed under Apache-2.0 and fastapi_mcp under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between OpenAPI-Specification and fastapi_mcp?
OpenAPI-Specification is written in Markdown and fastapi_mcp in Python. 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 fastapi_mcp?
Choose OpenAPI-Specification if you want the larger community (31,225 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose fastapi_mcp if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.