head to head · open source
Insomnia vs dubbo-go-pixiu
Insomnia has 40,022 GitHub stars, 2,366 forks, 874 open issues and last shipped yesterday. dubbo-go-pixiu has 568 stars, 191 forks, 24 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Insomnia leads on adoption by 6,946% (40,022 vs 568 stars). Insomnia is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; dubbo-go-pixiu is written in Go under Apache-2.0. Insomnia has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, dubbo-go-pixiu 34%. dubbo-go-pixiu was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (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 | dubbo-go-pixiu | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 568 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 191 |
| 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 dubbo-go-pixiu if
- You want the dubbo-go-pixiu feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and dubbo-go-pixiu 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 dubbo-go-pixiu
Dubbo Go Pixiu is an Apache 2.0, Go based AI and API gateway built on Dubbo go that lets external callers reach internal Dubbo clusters and unifies access to LLMs and MCP services, aimed at developers and platform engineers running Dubbo microservices or AI workloads.
read the full dubbo-go-pixiu overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Insomnia or dubbo-go-pixiu more popular?
Insomnia has 40,022 GitHub stars and dubbo-go-pixiu has 568. Insomnia has the larger community by that measure.
Are Insomnia and dubbo-go-pixiu free?
Both are open source. Insomnia is licensed under Apache-2.0 and dubbo-go-pixiu under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Insomnia and dubbo-go-pixiu?
Insomnia is written in TypeScript and dubbo-go-pixiu 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 dubbo-go-pixiu?
Choose Insomnia if you want the larger community (40,022 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose dubbo-go-pixiu if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.