head to head · open source
Insomnia vs api-umbrella
Insomnia has 40,111 GitHub stars, 2,388 forks, 874 open issues and last shipped yesterday. api-umbrella has 2,203 stars, 375 forks, 256 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Insomnia leads on adoption by 1,721% (40,111 vs 2,203 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 | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 375 |
| 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 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-umbrella
API Umbrella What Is API Umbrella? API Umbrella is an open source API management platform for exposing web service APIs. The basic goal of API Umbrella is to make life easier for both API creators and API consumers. How? Make life easier for API creators: Allow API creators to focus on building APIs. Standardize the boring stuff: APIs can assume the boring stuff (access control, rate limiting, analytics, etc.) is already taken care if the API is being accessed, so common functionality doesn't need to be implemented in the API code. Easy to add: API Umbrella acts as a layer above your APIs, so your API code…
read the full api-umbrella overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Insomnia or api-umbrella more popular?
Insomnia has 40,111 GitHub stars and api-umbrella has 2,203. 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 (40,111 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.