head to head · open source
Insomnia vs bichon
Insomnia has 40,109 GitHub stars, 2,387 forks, 874 open issues and last shipped yesterday. bichon has 2,064 stars, 90 forks, 38 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Insomnia leads on adoption by 1,843% (40,109 vs 2,064 stars). Insomnia is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; bichon is written in Rust under AGPL-3.0. Insomnia has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, bichon 4%. bichon 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 | bichon | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 2.1K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 90 |
| 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 bichon if
- You want the bichon feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and bichon 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 bichon
BICHON A self hosted email archiving server built in Rust. Download emails from IMAP accounts, builds a full text search index, and serves a REST API with an embedded WebUI. Purpose built for long term preservation, unified cross account search, and programmatic access to archived email. ▶ Click to watch the demo [!NOTE] Bichon is an archiver , not an email client. It does not send, compose, forward, or reply to emails. Its optional SMTP server is for receiving emails only. Contents Features Quick Start Docker (Recommended) Docker Compose Binary Installation Build from Source Configuration Reference Required…
read the full bichon overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Insomnia or bichon more popular?
Insomnia has 40,109 GitHub stars and bichon has 2,064. Insomnia has the larger community by that measure.
Are Insomnia and bichon free?
Both are open source. Insomnia is licensed under Apache-2.0 and bichon under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Insomnia and bichon?
Insomnia is written in TypeScript and bichon in Rust. 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 bichon?
Choose Insomnia if you want the larger community (40,109 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose bichon if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.