head to head · open source
Bruno vs apidash
Bruno has 47,022 GitHub stars, 2,888 forks, 1,831 open issues and last shipped yesterday. apidash has 2,909 stars, 1,007 forks, 209 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. Bruno leads on adoption by 1,516% (47,022 vs 2,909 stars). Bruno is written in JavaScript under MIT; apidash is written in Dart under Apache-2.0. Bruno has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, apidash 35%. Bruno was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 4 topic tags (api-client, api-testing, developer-tools, graphql-client), 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
| Bruno | apidash | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 47K | ★ 2.9K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | Dart |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-14 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.9K | ⑂ 1.0K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Bruno if
- You weight community size — 47K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick apidash if
- You want the apidash feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Dart
- You evaluated both and apidash fits your workflow better
About Bruno
Bruno is a lightweight, open source API client and IDE for exploring and testing APIs, built for developers and teams who want their request collections stored as plain text in a folder on their own filesystem rather than in a vendor's cloud.
read the full Bruno overview →
About apidash
API Dash is an open source cross platform API client for desktop and mobile, built with Flutter and written in Dart. It lives in the developer tools and API development and testing ecosystem, and it supports HTTP, GraphQL, SSE or streaming requests, and AI assisted request work. The README describes it as a lightweight alternative to Postman and Insomnia, with downloadable packages for iOS, iPad, macOS, Windows, and Linux.
read the full apidash overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Bruno or apidash more popular?
Bruno has 47,022 GitHub stars and apidash has 2,909. Bruno has the larger community by that measure.
Are Bruno and apidash free?
Both are open source. Bruno is licensed under MIT and apidash under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Bruno and apidash?
Bruno is written in JavaScript and apidash in Dart. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Bruno or apidash?
Choose Bruno if you want the larger community (47,022 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose apidash if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.