FastMCP and FastMCP Gateway: MCP vendor profile
FastMCP is Prefect's open-source Python framework for MCP servers, clients and apps, and FastMCP Gateway is Prefect's commercial service that hosts and governs FastMCP servers from a git push, as documented by the vendor. The FastMCP site banner on 5 Nov 2026 announced FastMCP 4 as "built for the new MCP protocol" (gofastmcp.com).
At a glance
| Listed as | FastMCP and FastMCP Gateway (Prefect) |
|---|---|
| Type | SDKs and frameworks |
| Also covers | host or runtime, gateway or proxy |
| Operator | Prefect |
| Home | gofastmcp.com |
| Price | open source, Apache-2.0; free start, paid plans |
| Read | 5 November 2026 |
What it does for this layer
FastMCP says it created the high-level Python API that was incorporated into the official MCP Python SDK in 2024 (gofastmcp.com). FastMCP says the standalone project is downloaded "more than a million times a day" and that some version of it "powers 70% of MCP servers across all languages" (gofastmcp.com, vendor's own claim). FastMCP's source at PrefectHQ/fastmcp carries the Apache-2.0 license and showed about 28.3k GitHub stars on 5 Nov 2026 (github.com, observed 5 November 2026).
Prefect's FastMCP Gateway page cites "58M+ downloads a month" for FastMCP (www.prefect.io, vendor's own claim). A git push deploys a FastMCP server to FastMCP Gateway at a horizon.prefect.io address, for example https://my-tools.horizon.prefect.io (www.prefect.io). Prefect says FastMCP Gateway puts one governed endpoint between AI clients and tools, with every call authenticated, authorised and logged (www.prefect.io).
Prefect's pricing page refers to FastMCP Gateway as "our managed MCP platform", and the FastMCP Gateway page offers a free start (www.prefect.io). The www.prefect.io/horizon URL redirected to www.prefect.io/fastmcp on 5 Nov 2026 (www.prefect.io, observed 5 November 2026).
Products and plans
| Product | What it does | Price |
|---|---|---|
| FastMCP | Open-source Python framework for MCP servers, clients and apps. | open source, Apache-2.0; from 0 USD (source, as of 5 November 2026) |
| FastMCP Gateway | Managed hosting and governance for FastMCP servers. | free start, paid plans; from 0 USD; Commercial; plan prices not read (source, as of 5 November 2026) |
Standards
| Standard | Part of it | Status | What the page says | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MCP | new protocol revision | Supports | FastMCP 4 is described as built for the new MCP protocol. | gofastmcp.com |
Checks on its own domain
| Check | Domain | Result | Scanned | Method |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ora cached score | gofastmcp.com | 63 of 100, grade C | 7 September 2026 | how it was taken |
| Cloudflare agent-readiness scan | gofastmcp.com | 53 of 100, L4 Agent-Integrated; 8 of 15 counted checks passed | 5 November 2026 | how it was taken |
What it does not do
- FastMCP is Python only; TypeScript users need another framework.
- FastMCP Gateway does not host servers written outside FastMCP, per the push-to-deploy flow on the page read.