head to head · open source
Insomnia vs chapar
Insomnia has 40,022 GitHub stars, 2,366 forks, 874 open issues and last shipped today. chapar has 712 stars, 44 forks, 10 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Insomnia leads on adoption by 5,521% (40,022 vs 712 stars). Insomnia is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; chapar is written in Go under BSD-3-Clause. Insomnia has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, chapar 6%. Insomnia was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (api, api-client, grpc), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
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 | chapar | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 712 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | BSD-3-Clause |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 44 |
| 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 chapar if
- You want the chapar feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-3-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and chapar 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 chapar
Chapar Native API Testing Tool Chapar is an upcoming native API testing tool built with GoLang, designed to simplify and expedite the testing process for developers. While still in its early beta phase, Chapar aims to offer a user friendly experience with support for both HTTP and gRPC protocols with. What Chapar means? Chapar was the institution of the royal mounted couriers in ancient Persia. The messengers, called Chapar, alternated in stations a day's ride apart along the Royal Road. The riders were exclusively in the service of the Great King and the network allowed for messages to be transported from Susa t…
read the full chapar overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Insomnia or chapar more popular?
Insomnia has 40,022 GitHub stars and chapar has 712. Insomnia has the larger community by that measure.
Are Insomnia and chapar free?
Both are open source. Insomnia is licensed under Apache-2.0 and chapar under BSD-3-Clause. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Insomnia and chapar?
Insomnia is written in TypeScript and chapar 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 chapar?
Choose Insomnia if you want the larger community (40,022 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose chapar if its feature set, stack or BSD-3-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.