head to head · open source
Insomnia vs dev-proxy
Insomnia has 40,111 GitHub stars, 2,388 forks, 874 open issues and last shipped yesterday. dev-proxy has 838 stars, 90 forks, 36 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Insomnia leads on adoption by 4,687% (40,111 vs 838 stars). Insomnia is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; dev-proxy is written in C# under MIT. Insomnia has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, dev-proxy 11%. 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 | dev-proxy | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 838 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | C# |
| 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 dev-proxy if
- You want the dev-proxy feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches C#
- You evaluated both and dev-proxy 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 dev-proxy
Dev Proxy Test the untestable Documentation What is Dev Proxy? Dev Proxy is an API simulator that helps you effortlessly test your app beyond the happy path. Dev Proxy is a command line tool that works on any platform. Because it intercepts network requests, it works with any type of app and tech stack. Dev Proxy is open source and free to use . You test your app to make sure it works as intended. But what if the APIs you use fail? Will your app lose your customer's data? How do you test for this? Simulating API failures is hard. You end up writing code that you won't be shipping or worse: not testing at all…
read the full dev-proxy overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Insomnia or dev-proxy more popular?
Insomnia has 40,111 GitHub stars and dev-proxy has 838. Insomnia has the larger community by that measure.
Are Insomnia and dev-proxy free?
Both are open source. Insomnia is licensed under Apache-2.0 and dev-proxy under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Insomnia and dev-proxy?
Insomnia is written in TypeScript and dev-proxy in C#. 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 dev-proxy?
Choose Insomnia if you want the larger community (40,111 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose dev-proxy if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.