head to head · open source
Insomnia vs dubbo-go-pixiu
Insomnia has 40,111 GitHub stars, 2,388 forks, 874 open issues and last shipped yesterday. dubbo-go-pixiu has 566 stars, 193 forks, 24 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Insomnia leads on adoption by 6,987% (40,111 vs 566 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%. Insomnia 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 | ★ 566 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-01 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 193 |
| 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 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 dubbo-go-pixiu
Dubbo Go Pixiu: A Next Generation, High Performance AI / API Gateway English 中文 Dubbo Go Pixiu is a next generation AI / API Gateway built on Dubbo go , empowering seamless connections to LLMs and MCPs with unified access, intelligent extensions, and cost efficient management. At the same time, Pixiu bridges external protocols with internal Dubbo clusters, supporting HTTP , gRPC , Dubbo2 , and Triple for high performance, scalable integration. ⭐ New Capability: Pixiu has evolved into a universal AI Gateway , designed to simplify and unify access to LLMs and AI service providers — whether from public vendors or…
read the full dubbo-go-pixiu overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Insomnia or dubbo-go-pixiu more popular?
Insomnia has 40,111 GitHub stars and dubbo-go-pixiu has 566. 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 (40,111 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.