head to head · open source
Hoppscotch vs OpenAPI-Specification
Hoppscotch has 80,331 GitHub stars, 6,110 forks, 820 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. OpenAPI-Specification has 31,215 stars, 9,156 forks, 80 open issues and last shipped 7 days ago. Hoppscotch leads on adoption by 157% (80,331 vs 31,215 stars). Hoppscotch is written in TypeScript under MIT; OpenAPI-Specification is written in Markdown under Apache-2.0. Hoppscotch has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, OpenAPI-Specification 29%. Hoppscotch was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (rest), 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 | OpenAPI-Specification | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 80K | ★ 31K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Markdown |
| Last push | 2026-09-16 | 2026-09-11 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.1K | ⑂ 9.2K |
| 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 OpenAPI-Specification if
- You want the OpenAPI-Specification feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Markdown
- You evaluated both and OpenAPI-Specification 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 OpenAPI-Specification
The OpenAPI Specification (OAS) is a community driven open specification hosted within the OpenAPI Initiative, a Linux Foundation Collaborative Project. It defines a standard, programming language agnostic interface description for HTTP APIs, represented in YAML or JSON. The specification lives in the HTTP API tooling ecosystem, alongside the tools, libraries, and implementations listed in the repository's implementations document. The project source is released under the Apache 2.0 license, and its GitHub repository has accumulated roughly 31,000 stars and 9,100 forks across 13 years of activity.…
read the full OpenAPI-Specification overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Hoppscotch or OpenAPI-Specification more popular?
Hoppscotch has 80,331 GitHub stars and OpenAPI-Specification has 31,215. Hoppscotch has the larger community by that measure.
Are Hoppscotch and OpenAPI-Specification free?
Both are open source. Hoppscotch is licensed under MIT and OpenAPI-Specification under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Hoppscotch and OpenAPI-Specification?
Hoppscotch is written in TypeScript and OpenAPI-Specification in Markdown. 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 OpenAPI-Specification?
Choose Hoppscotch if you want the larger community (80,331 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose OpenAPI-Specification if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.