head to head · open source
Insomnia vs gateway
Insomnia has 40,109 GitHub stars, 2,387 forks, 874 open issues and last shipped yesterday. gateway has 3,123 stars, 935 forks, 761 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Insomnia leads on adoption by 1,184% (40,109 vs 3,123 stars). Insomnia is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; gateway is written in Go under Apache-2.0. Insomnia has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, gateway 30%. gateway 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 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Insomnia | gateway | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 3.1K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 935 |
| 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 gateway if
- You want the gateway 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 gateway 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 gateway
Envoy Gateway Envoy Gateway is an open source project for managing Envoy Proxy as a standalone or Kubernetes based application gateway. Gateway API resources are used to dynamically provision and configure the managed Envoy Proxies. Documentation [Blog][blog] introducing Envoy Gateway. Goals Quickstart to use Envoy Gateway in a few simple steps. Roadmap Compatibility Matrix Contact envoy gateway announce: Join our mailing list to receive important announcements. Slack: Join the [Envoy Slack workspace][] if you're not already a member. Otherwise, use the [Envoy Gateway channel][] to start collaborating with the…
read the full gateway 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 gateway more popular?
Insomnia has 40,109 GitHub stars and gateway has 3,123. Insomnia has the larger community by that measure.
Are Insomnia and gateway free?
Both are open source. Insomnia is licensed under Apache-2.0 and gateway under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Insomnia and gateway?
Insomnia is written in TypeScript and gateway 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 gateway?
Choose Insomnia if you want the larger community (40,109 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose gateway if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.