head to head · open source
Hoppscotch vs just-api
Hoppscotch has 80,331 GitHub stars, 6,110 forks, 820 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. just-api has 814 stars, 36 forks, 19 open issues and last shipped 7 months ago. Hoppscotch leads on adoption by 9,769% (80,331 vs 814 stars). Hoppscotch is written in TypeScript under MIT; just-api is written in JavaScript under MIT. Hoppscotch has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, just-api 4%. Hoppscotch was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 5 topic tags (api, api-testing, graphql, http), 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
| Hoppscotch | just-api | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 80K | ★ 814 |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-16 | 2026-02-12 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.1K | ⑂ 36 |
| 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 just-api if
- You want the just-api feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and just-api 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 just-api
Just API is a declarative, specification based test framework for REST and GraphQL APIs, written in JavaScript and distributed under the MIT license. It lives in the Node.js ecosystem and runs from the npm package just api . Instead of writing test code, a user describes a request and the response validation rules in a YAML file, and the framework builds the request, sends it to the server, and checks the response against that specification. Each suite can contain one or more specs, and suites run in serial or parallel mode.
read the full just-api overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Hoppscotch or just-api more popular?
Hoppscotch has 80,331 GitHub stars and just-api has 814. Hoppscotch has the larger community by that measure.
Are Hoppscotch and just-api free?
Both are open source. Hoppscotch is licensed under MIT and just-api under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Hoppscotch and just-api?
Hoppscotch is written in TypeScript and just-api in JavaScript. 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 just-api?
Choose Hoppscotch if you want the larger community (80,331 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose just-api if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.