head to head · open source
Insomnia vs gnostic
Insomnia has 40,022 GitHub stars, 2,366 forks, 874 open issues and last shipped yesterday. gnostic has 2,302 stars, 279 forks, 119 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. Insomnia leads on adoption by 1,639% (40,022 vs 2,302 stars). Insomnia is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; gnostic is written in Go under Apache-2.0. Insomnia has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, gnostic 12%. 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 | gnostic | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 2.3K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-08-10 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 279 |
| 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 gnostic if
- You want the gnostic 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 gnostic 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 gnostic
gnostic is a Go command line tool from Google that compiles OpenAPI descriptions written in JSON or YAML into Protocol Buffer representations and back again, aimed at developers who need type safe, language neutral access to API descriptions and at tool authors who build code generators and other API tooling on top of a plugin interface.
read the full gnostic overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Insomnia or gnostic more popular?
Insomnia has 40,022 GitHub stars and gnostic has 2,302. Insomnia has the larger community by that measure.
Are Insomnia and gnostic free?
Both are open source. Insomnia is licensed under Apache-2.0 and gnostic under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Insomnia and gnostic?
Insomnia is written in TypeScript and gnostic 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 gnostic?
Choose Insomnia if you want the larger community (40,022 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose gnostic if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.