Prefect

license

Apache-2.0(OSI)

source

public

core features withheld

no

FastMCP is released under the Apache-2.0 license, and the whole framework, covering servers, apps and clients, is in the public repository and installs from PyPI with no key. Prefect, which maintains it, also runs Horizon, a hosted platform and enterprise gateway that the FastMCP command line can deploy to, but servers run and deploy over HTTP without it and no framework feature is reserved for it.

• https://github.com/jlowin/fastmcp recorded 2026-08-13

  Repo page - Apache-2.0 badge, 27,203 stargazers, the whole framework in the tree, maintained by Prefect. No enterprise directory, license key or paid tier.

• https://gofastmcp.com/deployment/prefect-horizon.md recorded 2026-09-29

  The Horizon deployment page describes a hosted platform the FastMCP command line deploys to after "fastmcp login": "Horizon is free for personal projects. Enterprise governance features are available for teams deploying to thousands of users." It is a hosting target for FastMCP servers, not a part of the framework withheld from the open package.

• https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jlowin/fastmcp/main/LICENSE recorded 2026-09-28

  The raw LICENSE file is the full Apache License text, headed "Version 2.0, January 2004", with no added restriction.

• https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jlowin/fastmcp/main/pyproject.toml recorded 2026-09-28

  pyproject.toml carries the classifier "License :: OSI Approved :: Apache Software License" and names the repository "https://github.com/PrefectHQ/fastmcp".

• https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jlowin/fastmcp/main/README.md recorded 2026-09-28

  The README installs the whole framework from PyPI with "uv add fastmcp" and covers servers, apps and clients. It names one commercial offering beside it, "Prefect Horizon", described as "the enterprise MCP gateway for scaling servers and tools across teams". Searched the body for pricing, license key, premium and subscription: none.

fastmcp's adoption reading comes directly from its own PyPI download count. The README also makes broader install and market-share claims of its own, but those are vendor statements rather than independently measured figures.

• https://github.com/jlowin/fastmcp recorded 2026-08-13

  27,203 stargazers; README - "the actively maintained standalone project is downloaded a million times a day, and some version of FastMCP powers 70% of MCP servers across all languages". No dependent-project count is stated on the page.

• https://pypistats.org/api/packages/fastmcp/recent recorded 2026-08-13

  last_month = 94,141,215 downloads for fastmcp (last_week 24,037,435, last_day 4,222,355).

• https://pypistats.org/packages/fastmcp recorded 2026-08-13

  The rendered pypistats page for fastmcp; the figures are read from its API endpoint above rather than from the chart.

FastMCP implements both MCP roles and the full primitive set of tools, resources and prompts, managing transport negotiation for the caller - matching mcp-python-sdk, into which its 1.0 version was folded. What is missing is confirmation of the optional features - sampling, roots and elicitation - and a stated spec version, neither of which the documentation confirms.

• https://gofastmcp.com/getting-started/welcome recorded 2026-09-17

  The documentation's three pillars: "Servers - Expose Python functions, data, and instructions as MCP tools, resources, and prompts", "Clients - Connect to any MCP server", and Apps. The overview states that "transport negotiation, authentication, and protocol lifecycle are managed for you", and the Clients section documents a Transports reference.