head to head · open source
Insomnia vs dreamfactory
Insomnia has 40,022 GitHub stars, 2,366 forks, 874 open issues and last shipped yesterday. dreamfactory has 1,788 stars, 354 forks, 1 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. Insomnia leads on adoption by 2,138% (40,022 vs 1,788 stars). Insomnia is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; dreamfactory is written in Shell under Apache-2.0. Insomnia has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, dreamfactory 20%. Insomnia was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (api), 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.
← all 13541 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Insomnia | dreamfactory | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 1.8K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Shell |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-08-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 354 |
| 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 dreamfactory if
- You want the dreamfactory feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Shell
- You evaluated both and dreamfactory 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 dreamfactory
DreamFactory is a secure, self hosted enterprise data access platform that generates governed REST and MCP APIs for the databases and file storage an organization already runs, built for enterprise development teams that need role based API access without writing backend code.
read the full dreamfactory 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 dreamfactory more popular?
Insomnia has 40,022 GitHub stars and dreamfactory has 1,788. Insomnia has the larger community by that measure.
Are Insomnia and dreamfactory free?
Both are open source. Insomnia is licensed under Apache-2.0 and dreamfactory under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Insomnia and dreamfactory?
Insomnia is written in TypeScript and dreamfactory in Shell. 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 dreamfactory?
Choose Insomnia if you want the larger community (40,022 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose dreamfactory if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.