head to head · open source
Insomnia vs arex-agent-java
Insomnia has 40,022 GitHub stars, 2,366 forks, 874 open issues and last shipped today. arex-agent-java has 565 stars, 141 forks, 74 open issues and last shipped 16 days ago. Insomnia leads on adoption by 6,984% (40,022 vs 565 stars). Insomnia is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; arex-agent-java is written in Java under Apache-2.0. Insomnia has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, arex-agent-java 25%. 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 | arex-agent-java | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 565 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Java |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 141 |
| 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 arex-agent-java if
- You want the arex-agent-java feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and arex-agent-java 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 arex-agent-java
AREX An Open Source Testing Framework with Real World Data Introduction Building Getting Started Contributing License Introduction As your application evolves more complex, the effort required to thoroughly test against it also becomes tremendous. Arex is a framework designed around a quite straightforward principle of leveraging your real world data(i.e. database record, service payload, cache items etc.) for regression testing. Simple is powerful. The idea behind makes it incredibly powerful. AREX provides an out of box agent file that could be attached to any applications with Java 8+ and dynamically weaves so…
read the full arex-agent-java overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Insomnia or arex-agent-java more popular?
Insomnia has 40,022 GitHub stars and arex-agent-java has 565. Insomnia has the larger community by that measure.
Are Insomnia and arex-agent-java free?
Both are open source. Insomnia is licensed under Apache-2.0 and arex-agent-java under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Insomnia and arex-agent-java?
Insomnia is written in TypeScript and arex-agent-java in Java. 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 arex-agent-java?
Choose Insomnia if you want the larger community (40,022 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose arex-agent-java if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.