head to head · open source
Insomnia vs hurl
Insomnia has 40,021 GitHub stars, 2,365 forks, 874 open issues and last shipped yesterday. hurl has 19,203 stars, 745 forks, 200 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Insomnia leads on adoption by 108% (40,021 vs 19,203 stars). Insomnia is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; hurl is written in Rust under Apache-2.0. Insomnia has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, hurl 4%. Insomnia was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (curl, http-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
| Insomnia | hurl | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 19K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 745 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Insomnia if
- You weight community size — 40K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick hurl if
- You want the hurl feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and hurl fits your workflow better
About Insomnia
Insomnia is an open source, cross platform API client built with Electron and TypeScript for developing and testing APIs across multiple protocols including REST, GraphQL, WebSockets, SSE, and gRPC. It runs on macOS, Windows, and Linux and is distributed under the Apache 2.0 license. The project serves as a direct open source alternative to Postman, offering similar core functionality without vendor lock in or mandatory cloud usage.
read the full Insomnia overview →
About hurl
Hurl is a command line tool that runs HTTP requests defined in a simple plain text format. It lives in the Rust ecosystem, is licensed under Apache 2.0, and is powered under the hood by libcurl, so it inherits curl's transfer behavior while adding a readable file format on top. A single Hurl file can chain multiple requests, capture values from one response, and reuse those values in later requests, which makes it possible to describe an entire HTTP session rather than a single call. The project has been on GitHub for six years and carries roughly 19,000 stars and 744 forks.
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Frequently asked questions
Is Insomnia or hurl more popular?
Insomnia has 40,021 GitHub stars and hurl has 19,203. Insomnia has the larger community by that measure.
Are Insomnia and hurl free?
Both are open source. Insomnia is licensed under Apache-2.0 and hurl under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Insomnia and hurl?
Insomnia is written in TypeScript and hurl in Rust. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Insomnia or hurl?
Choose Insomnia if you want the larger community (40,021 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose hurl if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.