head to head · open source
Yaak vs hurl
Yaak has 19,224 GitHub stars, 813 forks, 19 open issues and last shipped yesterday. hurl has 19,203 stars, 745 forks, 200 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Yaak leads on adoption by 0% (19,224 vs 19,203 stars). Yaak is written in TypeScript under MIT; hurl is written in Rust under Apache-2.0. Yaak has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, hurl 4%. Yaak was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (http, 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
| Yaak | hurl | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 19K | ★ 19K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 813 | ⑂ 745 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Yaak if
- You weight community size — 19K stars and counting
- You want the MIT 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 Yaak
Yaak is a desktop API client for REST, GraphQL, gRPC, WebSocket, and Server Sent Events. It is built with Tauri, Rust, and React, and it lives in the developer tools ecosystem for API development and testing. The project presents itself as an offline first, privacy first alternative to Postman, Insomnia, and Bruno.
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 Yaak or hurl more popular?
Yaak has 19,224 GitHub stars and hurl has 19,203. Yaak has the larger community by that measure.
Are Yaak and hurl free?
Both are open source. Yaak is licensed under MIT and hurl under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Yaak and hurl?
Yaak 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, Yaak or hurl?
Choose Yaak if you want the larger community (19,224 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose hurl if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.