head to head · open source
Hoppscotch vs macai
Hoppscotch has 80,331 GitHub stars, 6,110 forks, 820 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. macai has 931 stars, 77 forks, 44 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. Hoppscotch leads on adoption by 8,528% (80,331 vs 931 stars). Hoppscotch is written in TypeScript under MIT; macai is written in Swift under Apache-2.0. Hoppscotch has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, macai 8%. Hoppscotch was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (api-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.
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Side by side
| Hoppscotch | macai | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 80K | ★ 931 |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Swift |
| Last push | 2026-09-16 | 2026-08-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.1K | ⑂ 77 |
| 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 macai if
- You want the macai feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Swift
- You evaluated both and macai 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 macai
macai is an all in one native macOS AI chat application that connects to virtually any AI provider — ChatGPT, Claude, xAI (Grok), Google Gemini, Perplexity, Ollama, OpenRouter, and almost any OpenAI compatible API — and it is built for people on macOS 14.0 or later who want one app instead of a different client per provider.
read the full macai overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Hoppscotch or macai more popular?
Hoppscotch has 80,331 GitHub stars and macai has 931. Hoppscotch has the larger community by that measure.
Are Hoppscotch and macai free?
Both are open source. Hoppscotch is licensed under MIT and macai under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Hoppscotch and macai?
Hoppscotch is written in TypeScript and macai in Swift. 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 macai?
Choose Hoppscotch if you want the larger community (80,331 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose macai if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.