head to head · open source
Insomnia vs apitest
Insomnia has 40,021 GitHub stars, 2,365 forks, 874 open issues and last shipped yesterday. apitest has 846 stars, 58 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped 15 days ago. Insomnia leads on adoption by 4,631% (40,021 vs 846 stars). Insomnia is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; apitest is written in Go under MIT. Insomnia has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, apitest 7%. 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 | apitest | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 846 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 58 |
| 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 apitest if
- You want the apitest feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and apitest 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 apitest
apitest is a behavioural testing library for Go HTTP services, published under the MIT licence and maintained at github.com/steinfletcher/apitest. It lives in the Go ecosystem and has been in development for eight years, accumulating 846 stars and 58 forks, with an API the README describes as stable. Tests are written the way a client uses an API: a request is built, sent to a handler, and the response is asserted against expectations. The README states that in behavioural tests the internal structure of the application is not known by the tests; data is input to the system and the outputs must meet certain condi…
read the full apitest overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Insomnia or apitest more popular?
Insomnia has 40,021 GitHub stars and apitest has 846. Insomnia has the larger community by that measure.
Are Insomnia and apitest free?
Both are open source. Insomnia is licensed under Apache-2.0 and apitest under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Insomnia and apitest?
Insomnia is written in TypeScript and apitest in Go. 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 apitest?
Choose Insomnia if you want the larger community (40,021 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose apitest if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.