head to head · open source
Insomnia vs curlie
Insomnia has 40,111 GitHub stars, 2,388 forks, 874 open issues and last shipped yesterday. curlie has 3,730 stars, 120 forks, 26 open issues and last shipped 11 months ago. Insomnia leads on adoption by 975% (40,111 vs 3,730 stars). Insomnia is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; curlie is written in Go under MIT. Insomnia has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, curlie 3%. 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-client, curl, http-client), 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 | curlie | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 3.7K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2025-12-07 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 120 |
| 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 curlie if
- You want the curlie feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and curlie 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 curlie
Curlie If you like the interface of HTTPie but miss the features of curl, curlie is what you are searching for. Curlie is a frontend to curl that adds the ease of use of httpie , without compromising on features and performance. All curl options are exposed with syntax sugar and output formatting inspired from httpie . Install Using homebrew: Using webi: Using eget: Using macports: Using pkg: Using go: Using scoop: Using mise: Or download a binary package. Usage Synopsis: Simple GET: Custom method, headers and JSON data: When running interactively, curlie provides pretty printed output for json. To force pretty…
read the full curlie overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Insomnia or curlie more popular?
Insomnia has 40,111 GitHub stars and curlie has 3,730. Insomnia has the larger community by that measure.
Are Insomnia and curlie free?
Both are open source. Insomnia is licensed under Apache-2.0 and curlie under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Insomnia and curlie?
Insomnia is written in TypeScript and curlie 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 curlie?
Choose Insomnia if you want the larger community (40,111 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose curlie if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.