head to head · open source
Insomnia vs aws-sam-cli
Insomnia has 40,021 GitHub stars, 2,365 forks, 874 open issues and last shipped yesterday. aws-sam-cli has 6,733 stars, 1,248 forks, 535 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Insomnia leads on adoption by 494% (40,021 vs 6,733 stars). Insomnia is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; aws-sam-cli is written in Python under Apache-2.0. Insomnia has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, aws-sam-cli 19%. 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 | aws-sam-cli | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 6.7K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 1.2K |
| 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 aws-sam-cli if
- You want the aws-sam-cli feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and aws-sam-cli 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 aws-sam-cli
AWS SAM CLI is an open source command line tool for building, testing, debugging, and deploying serverless applications on AWS, aimed at developers and teams working with Lambda functions, Step Functions, API Gateway, and related services.
read the full aws-sam-cli overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Insomnia or aws-sam-cli more popular?
Insomnia has 40,021 GitHub stars and aws-sam-cli has 6,733. Insomnia has the larger community by that measure.
Are Insomnia and aws-sam-cli free?
Both are open source. Insomnia is licensed under Apache-2.0 and aws-sam-cli under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Insomnia and aws-sam-cli?
Insomnia is written in TypeScript and aws-sam-cli in Python. 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 aws-sam-cli?
Choose Insomnia if you want the larger community (40,021 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose aws-sam-cli if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.