head to head · open source
Insomnia vs goa
Insomnia has 40,111 GitHub stars, 2,388 forks, 874 open issues and last shipped yesterday. goa has 6,119 stars, 582 forks, 38 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Insomnia leads on adoption by 556% (40,111 vs 6,119 stars). Insomnia is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; goa is written in Go under MIT. Insomnia has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, goa 10%. Insomnia was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (api), 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Insomnia | goa | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 6.1K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 582 |
| 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 goa if
- You want the goa feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and goa 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 goa
Goa Design First, Code With Confidence Overview Goa transforms how you build APIs and microservices in Go with its powerful design first approach. Instead of writing boilerplate code, you express your API's intent through a clear, expressive DSL. Goa then automatically generates production ready code, comprehensive documentation, and client libraries—all perfectly aligned with your design. The result? Dramatically reduced development time, consistent APIs, and the elimination of the documentation code drift that plagues traditional development. Sponsors incident.io: Bounce back stronger after every incident Use…
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 goa more popular?
Insomnia has 40,111 GitHub stars and goa has 6,119. Insomnia has the larger community by that measure.
Are Insomnia and goa free?
Both are open source. Insomnia is licensed under Apache-2.0 and goa under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Insomnia and goa?
Insomnia is written in TypeScript and goa 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 goa?
Choose Insomnia if you want the larger community (40,111 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose goa if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.