head to head · open source
Insomnia vs api-umbrella
Insomnia has 40,021 GitHub stars, 2,365 forks, 874 open issues and last shipped yesterday. api-umbrella has 2,198 stars, 374 forks, 256 open issues and last shipped 20 days ago. Insomnia leads on adoption by 1,721% (40,021 vs 2,198 stars). Insomnia is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; api-umbrella is written in Ruby under MIT. Insomnia has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, api-umbrella 17%. Insomnia was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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-umbrella | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 2.2K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Ruby |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-08-29 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 374 |
| 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-umbrella if
- You want the api-umbrella feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Ruby
- You evaluated both and api-umbrella 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 api-umbrella
API Umbrella is an MIT licensed, Ruby based open source API management platform that runs as a layer above existing web service APIs so that access control, rate limiting, analytics, and unified documentation are handled by the platform instead of by each individual API's code.
read the full api-umbrella overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Insomnia or api-umbrella more popular?
Insomnia has 40,021 GitHub stars and api-umbrella has 2,198. Insomnia has the larger community by that measure.
Are Insomnia and api-umbrella free?
Both are open source. Insomnia is licensed under Apache-2.0 and api-umbrella under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Insomnia and api-umbrella?
Insomnia is written in TypeScript and api-umbrella in Ruby. 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-umbrella?
Choose Insomnia if you want the larger community (40,021 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose api-umbrella if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.