head to head · open source
Insomnia vs emissary
Insomnia has 40,111 GitHub stars, 2,388 forks, 874 open issues and last shipped yesterday. emissary has 4,524 stars, 712 forks, 442 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Insomnia leads on adoption by 787% (40,111 vs 4,524 stars). Insomnia is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; emissary is written in Python under Apache-2.0. Insomnia has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, emissary 16%. 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 | emissary | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 4.5K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 712 |
| 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 emissary if
- You want the emissary feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and emissary 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 emissary
Emissary ingress ================ [![Version][badge version img]][badge version link] [![Image Size][badge ghcr size]][badge ghcr link] [![Image Pulls][badge ghcr pulls]][badge ghcr link] [![Join Slack][badge slack img]][badge slack link] [![Core Infrastructure Initiative: Best Practices][badge cii img]][badge cii link] [badge version img]: [badge version link]: [badge ghcr size]: [badge ghcr pulls]: [badge ghcr link]: [badge slack img]: [badge slack link]: [badge cii img]: [badge cii link]: Emissary Ingress is an open source Kubernetes native API Gateway + Layer 7 load balancer + Kubernetes Ingress built on…
read the full emissary overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Insomnia or emissary more popular?
Insomnia has 40,111 GitHub stars and emissary has 4,524. Insomnia has the larger community by that measure.
Are Insomnia and emissary free?
Both are open source. Insomnia is licensed under Apache-2.0 and emissary under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Insomnia and emissary?
Insomnia is written in TypeScript and emissary in Python. 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 emissary?
Choose Insomnia if you want the larger community (40,111 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose emissary if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.