@fastify/helmet vs Orca API Security: Side-by-Side Comparison (2026)
Features, pricing, ratings, and pros & cons — compared head-to-head.
@fastify/helmet is a free api security tool. Orca API Security is a commercial api security tool by Orca Security. Compare features, ratings, integrations, and community reviews side by side to find the best api security fit for your security stack.
CST VerdictBased on our analysis of NIST CSF 2.0 coverage, core features, integrations, company size fit, here is our conclusion:
Fastify teams building APIs that need HTTP header security without operational overhead should start with @fastify/helmet; it's a thin wrapper around the battle-tested helmet library, meaning you get OWASP Top 10 mitigations (CSP, HSTS, X-Frame-Options) with minimal configuration beyond `fastify.register()`. The 453 GitHub stars and zero-friction npm install make adoption frictionless for small-to-mid teams. Skip this if you need dynamic policy management, request-level header mutation, or centralized policy enforcement across multiple services; @fastify/helmet is intentionally static and Fastify-bound, not a gateway or orchestration tool.
Mid-market and enterprise teams managing APIs across multiple cloud providers will get the most from Orca API Security because its agentless discovery actually finds shadow APIs that escape your infrastructure inventory, not just catalog what you already know about. The SideScanning out-of-band collection method means you're monitoring without touching production workloads, which matters when you're running on AWS, Azure, GCP, and Oracle simultaneously. Skip this if your primary concern is API runtime protection or threat response; Orca is built for asset discovery and drift detection, not blocking malicious API calls in flight.
