head to head · open source
Bruno vs HTTPie
Bruno has 47,022 GitHub stars, 2,888 forks, 1,831 open issues and last shipped yesterday. HTTPie has 4,037 stars, 60 forks, 197 open issues and last shipped 1.5 years ago. Bruno leads on adoption by 1,065% (47,022 vs 4,037 stars). Bruno is written in JavaScript under MIT; HTTPie is written in various languages under a custom or non-standard licence. Bruno has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, HTTPie 1%. Bruno was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (api-client, api-testing, developer-tools), 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 | HTTPie | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 47K | ★ 4.0K |
| License | MIT | Custom / other |
| Written in | JavaScript | — |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2025-03-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.9K | ⑂ 60 |
| 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 HTTPie if
- You want the HTTPie feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- You evaluated both and HTTPie 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 HTTPie
HTTPie Desktop is a cross platform API testing client published for Mac, Windows, and Linux. It sits in the HTTPie ecosystem of developer tools for API development and testing, alongside the HTTPie CLI and the HTTPie web and mobile products. The project presents itself as a client for humans who need to test REST, GraphQL, and HTTP APIs from a desktop application.
read the full HTTPie overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Bruno or HTTPie more popular?
Bruno has 47,022 GitHub stars and HTTPie has 4,037. Bruno has the larger community by that measure.
Are Bruno and HTTPie free?
Both are open source. Bruno is licensed under MIT, and HTTPie has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Bruno and HTTPie?
Bruno is written in JavaScript and HTTPie in various languages. 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 HTTPie?
Choose Bruno if you want the larger community (47,022 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose HTTPie if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.