head to head · open source
Hoppscotch vs karate
Hoppscotch has 80,331 GitHub stars, 6,110 forks, 820 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. karate has 8,957 stars, 2,044 forks, 18 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Hoppscotch leads on adoption by 797% (80,331 vs 8,957 stars). Hoppscotch is written in TypeScript under MIT; karate is written in Java under MIT. Hoppscotch has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, karate 23%. karate was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (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
| Hoppscotch | karate | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 80K | ★ 9.0K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Java |
| Last push | 2026-09-16 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.1K | ⑂ 2.0K |
| 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 karate if
- You want the karate feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and karate 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 karate
Karate is an open source, MIT licensed Java framework that combines API testing, mocks, performance testing and UI automation into a single unified tool, aimed at teams that need to test APIs and services without stitching several separate tools together.
read the full karate overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Hoppscotch or karate more popular?
Hoppscotch has 80,331 GitHub stars and karate has 8,957. Hoppscotch has the larger community by that measure.
Are Hoppscotch and karate free?
Both are open source. Hoppscotch is licensed under MIT and karate under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Hoppscotch and karate?
Hoppscotch is written in TypeScript and karate in Java. 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 karate?
Choose Hoppscotch if you want the larger community (80,331 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose karate if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.