head to head · open source
Insomnia vs arex-agent-java
Insomnia has 40,111 GitHub stars, 2,388 forks, 874 open issues and last shipped yesterday. arex-agent-java has 572 stars, 143 forks, 74 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. Insomnia leads on adoption by 6,912% (40,111 vs 572 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 | ★ 572 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Java |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-09-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 143 |
| 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 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 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…
read the full arex-agent-java overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Insomnia or arex-agent-java more popular?
Insomnia has 40,111 GitHub stars and arex-agent-java has 572. 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 (40,111 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.