head to head · open source
Insomnia vs api-platform
Insomnia has 40,111 GitHub stars, 2,388 forks, 874 open issues and last shipped yesterday. api-platform has 9,199 stars, 967 forks, 2 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Insomnia leads on adoption by 336% (40,111 vs 9,199 stars). Insomnia is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; api-platform is written in PHP under MIT. Insomnia has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, api-platform 11%. Insomnia was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (api, graphql), 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 | api-platform | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 9.2K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 967 |
| 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 api-platform if
- You want the api-platform feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and api-platform fits your workflow better
About Insomnia
Insomnia API Client Insomnia is an open source, cross platform API client for GraphQL, REST, WebSockets, Server Sent Events (SSE), gRPC and any other HTTP compatible protocol. With Insomnia you can: Debug APIs using the most popular protocols and formats. Design APIs using the native OpenAPI editor and visual preview. Test APIs using native test suites and collection runner. Mock APIs using a cloud or self hosted mocking server. Build CI/CD pipelines using the native Insomnia CLI for linting and testing. Collaborate with others using the many collaboration features. And more including the ability to use 3rd…
read the full Insomnia overview →
About api-platform
API Platform is a next generation web framework designed to easily create API first projects without compromising extensibility and flexibility: Design your own data model as plain old PHP classes or import an existing ontology . Expose in minutes a hypermedia REST or a GraphQL API with pagination, data validation, access control, relation embedding, filters, and error handling... Benefit from Content Negotiation: GraphQL, JSON LD, Hydra, HAL, JSON:API, YAML, JSON, XML and CSV are supported out of the box. Enjoy the beautiful automatically generated API documentation (OpenAPI). Add a convenient Material Design…
read the full api-platform overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Insomnia or api-platform more popular?
Insomnia has 40,111 GitHub stars and api-platform has 9,199. Insomnia has the larger community by that measure.
Are Insomnia and api-platform free?
Both are open source. Insomnia is licensed under Apache-2.0 and api-platform under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Insomnia and api-platform?
Insomnia is written in TypeScript and api-platform in PHP. 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 api-platform?
Choose Insomnia if you want the larger community (40,111 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose api-platform if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.