head to head · open source
fastapi vs prest
fastapi has 102,471 GitHub stars, 9,913 forks, 78 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. prest has 4,619 stars, 322 forks, 153 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. fastapi leads on adoption by 2,118% (102,471 vs 4,619 stars). fastapi is written in Python under MIT; prest is written in Go under MIT. fastapi has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, prest 7%. fastapi was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (api), 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
| fastapi | prest | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 102K | ★ 4.6K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.9K | ⑂ 322 |
| 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 prest if
- You want the prest feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and prest 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 prest
pREST (PostgreSQL + REST) is a production ready, MIT licensed Go service that exposes an instant REST API and a read only Model Context Protocol (MCP) endpoint on top of any existing or new PostgreSQL database, built for teams that want CRUD, custom SQL routes, authentication and access control without hand writing a backend.
read the full prest overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is fastapi or prest more popular?
fastapi has 102,471 GitHub stars and prest has 4,619. fastapi has the larger community by that measure.
Are fastapi and prest free?
Both are open source. fastapi is licensed under MIT and prest under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between fastapi and prest?
fastapi is written in Python and prest in Go. 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 prest?
Choose fastapi if you want the larger community (102,471 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose prest if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.