head to head · open source
Insomnia vs fastapi_mcp
Insomnia has 40,021 GitHub stars, 2,365 forks, 874 open issues and last shipped yesterday. fastapi_mcp has 12,008 stars, 967 forks, 169 open issues and last shipped 10 months ago. Insomnia leads on adoption by 233% (40,021 vs 12,008 stars). Insomnia is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; fastapi_mcp is written in Python under MIT. Insomnia has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, fastapi_mcp 8%. 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.
← all 8884 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Insomnia | fastapi_mcp | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 12K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2025-11-24 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 967 |
| 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 fastapi_mcp if
- You want the fastapi_mcp feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and fastapi_mcp 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 fastapi_mcp
FastAPI MCP is an MIT licensed Python library from Tadata that exposes the endpoints of an existing FastAPI application as Model Context Protocol (MCP) tools, so MCP clients such as Claude and Cursor can call a team's own API, and it is built for Python backend developers who already run FastAPI services and want agent access without hand writing a separate MCP server.
read the full fastapi_mcp 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 fastapi_mcp more popular?
Insomnia has 40,021 GitHub stars and fastapi_mcp has 12,008. Insomnia has the larger community by that measure.
Are Insomnia and fastapi_mcp free?
Both are open source. Insomnia is licensed under Apache-2.0 and fastapi_mcp under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Insomnia and fastapi_mcp?
Insomnia is written in TypeScript and fastapi_mcp 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 fastapi_mcp?
Choose Insomnia if you want the larger community (40,021 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose fastapi_mcp if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.