head to head · open source
Insomnia vs connexion
Insomnia has 40,111 GitHub stars, 2,388 forks, 874 open issues and last shipped yesterday. connexion has 4,613 stars, 790 forks, 186 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Insomnia leads on adoption by 770% (40,111 vs 4,613 stars). Insomnia is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; connexion is written in Python under Apache-2.0. Insomnia has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, connexion 17%. connexion 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Insomnia | connexion | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 4.6K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 790 |
| 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 connexion if
- You want the connexion 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 connexion 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 connexion
Explore the docs » Connexion is a modern Python web framework that makes spec first and api first development easy. You describe your API in an [OpenAPI][OpenAPI] (or [Swagger][Swagger]) specification with as much detail as you want and Connexion will guarantee that it works as you specified. It works either standalone, or in combination with any ASGI or WSGI compatible framework! 📢 Connexion 3 was recently released! Read about the changes here » ✨ Features Connexion provides the following functionality based on your specification : 🚏 Automatic route registration , no @route decorators needed 🔒 Authentication…
read the full connexion overview →
More in Developer Tools
Related comparisons
More API Development & Testing projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the API Development & Testing field.
Frequently asked questions
Is Insomnia or connexion more popular?
Insomnia has 40,111 GitHub stars and connexion has 4,613. Insomnia has the larger community by that measure.
Are Insomnia and connexion free?
Both are open source. Insomnia is licensed under Apache-2.0 and connexion under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Insomnia and connexion?
Insomnia is written in TypeScript and connexion 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 connexion?
Choose Insomnia if you want the larger community (40,111 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose connexion if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.