head to head · open source
Hoppscotch vs hurl
Hoppscotch has 80,331 GitHub stars, 6,110 forks, 820 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. hurl has 19,203 stars, 745 forks, 200 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Hoppscotch leads on adoption by 318% (80,331 vs 19,203 stars). Hoppscotch is written in TypeScript under MIT; hurl is written in Rust under Apache-2.0. Hoppscotch has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, hurl 4%. hurl was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (api-testing, http, http-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.
← all 8884 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Hoppscotch | hurl | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 80K | ★ 19K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-09-16 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.1K | ⑂ 745 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Hoppscotch if
- You weight community size — 80K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick hurl if
- You want the hurl feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and hurl fits your workflow better
About Hoppscotch
Hoppscotch is an open source API development ecosystem that provides a full featured client for designing, testing, and documenting APIs. It operates as a web based application, desktop app, and CLI tool, supporting offline, on premises, and cloud deployments. Built with TypeScript and licensed under MIT, it serves as a direct open source alternative to proprietary tools like Postman and Insomnia.
read the full Hoppscotch overview →
About hurl
Hurl is a command line tool that runs HTTP requests defined in a simple plain text format. It lives in the Rust ecosystem, is licensed under Apache 2.0, and is powered under the hood by libcurl, so it inherits curl's transfer behavior while adding a readable file format on top. A single Hurl file can chain multiple requests, capture values from one response, and reuse those values in later requests, which makes it possible to describe an entire HTTP session rather than a single call. The project has been on GitHub for six years and carries roughly 19,000 stars and 744 forks.
More in Developer Tools
Related comparisons
More API Development & Testing projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the API Development & Testing field.
Frequently asked questions
Is Hoppscotch or hurl more popular?
Hoppscotch has 80,331 GitHub stars and hurl has 19,203. Hoppscotch has the larger community by that measure.
Are Hoppscotch and hurl free?
Both are open source. Hoppscotch is licensed under MIT and hurl under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Hoppscotch and hurl?
Hoppscotch is written in TypeScript and hurl in Rust. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Hoppscotch or hurl?
Choose Hoppscotch if you want the larger community (80,331 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose hurl if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.