head to head · open source
Hoppscotch vs Scalar
Hoppscotch has 80,331 GitHub stars, 6,110 forks, 820 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Scalar has 16,136 stars, 937 forks, 68 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Hoppscotch leads on adoption by 398% (80,331 vs 16,136 stars). Hoppscotch is written in TypeScript under MIT; Scalar is written in TypeScript under MIT. Hoppscotch has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, Scalar 6%. Scalar was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 4 topic tags (api, api-client, http-client, rest-api), 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 | Scalar | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 80K | ★ 16K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-16 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.1K | ⑂ 937 |
| 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 Scalar if
- You want the Scalar feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Scalar 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 Scalar
Scalar is open source API documentation and testing platform. It lives in TypeScript ecosystem, with Vue in topics, and targets REST API, OpenAPI, Swagger, API client, docs, http client, reference work. License is MIT. It gives interactive API reference from OpenAPI/Swagger documents, plus built in API testing tool. It also gives offline first API client built for OpenAPI.
read the full Scalar overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Hoppscotch or Scalar more popular?
Hoppscotch has 80,331 GitHub stars and Scalar has 16,136. Hoppscotch has the larger community by that measure.
Are Hoppscotch and Scalar free?
Both are open source. Hoppscotch is licensed under MIT and Scalar under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Hoppscotch and Scalar?
Hoppscotch is written in TypeScript and Scalar in TypeScript. 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 Scalar?
Choose Hoppscotch if you want the larger community (80,331 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Scalar if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.