head to head · open source
fastapi vs Insomnia
fastapi has 102,402 GitHub stars, 9,903 forks, 78 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. Insomnia has 40,021 stars, 2,365 forks, 874 open issues and last shipped yesterday. fastapi leads on adoption by 156% (102,402 vs 40,021 stars). fastapi is written in Python under MIT; Insomnia is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. fastapi has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, Insomnia 6%. Insomnia was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (api), 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
| fastapi | Insomnia | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 102K | ★ 40K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-14 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.9K | ⑂ 2.4K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick fastapi if
- You weight community size — 102K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Insomnia if
- You want the Insomnia feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Insomnia fits your workflow better
About fastapi
FastAPI is an MIT licensed, high performance Python web framework for building APIs with standard Python type hints, aimed at Python developers and teams that need production ready HTTP services with automatic OpenAPI documentation.
read the full fastapi overview →
About Insomnia
Insomnia is an open source, cross platform API client built with Electron and TypeScript for developing and testing APIs across multiple protocols including REST, GraphQL, WebSockets, SSE, and gRPC. It runs on macOS, Windows, and Linux and is distributed under the Apache 2.0 license. The project serves as a direct open source alternative to Postman, offering similar core functionality without vendor lock in or mandatory cloud usage.
read the full Insomnia overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is fastapi or Insomnia more popular?
fastapi has 102,402 GitHub stars and Insomnia has 40,021. fastapi has the larger community by that measure.
Are fastapi and Insomnia free?
Both are open source. fastapi is licensed under MIT and Insomnia under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between fastapi and Insomnia?
fastapi is written in Python and Insomnia in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, fastapi or Insomnia?
Choose fastapi if you want the larger community (102,402 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Insomnia if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.