head to head · open source
Insomnia vs hey-api
Insomnia has 40,111 GitHub stars, 2,388 forks, 874 open issues and last shipped yesterday. hey-api has 5,551 stars, 453 forks, 630 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. Insomnia leads on adoption by 623% (40,111 vs 5,551 stars). Insomnia is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; hey-api is written in TypeScript under MIT. Insomnia has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, hey-api 8%. 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-client), 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.
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Side by side
| Insomnia | hey-api | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 5.6K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-31 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 453 |
| 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 hey-api if
- You want the hey-api feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and hey-api 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 hey-api
Hey API "OpenAPI codegen that just works." — Guillermo Rauch, CEO of Vercel Manual • Issues • Contribute About Hey API is an ecosystem for turning API specifications into production ready code. It's trusted by thousands of companies – from YC startups to Fortune 500 enterprises – and powers products used by millions worldwide. This is the monorepo containing all open source Hey API packages. For package specific documentation and quick start guides, see the individual repositories below. Packages Package Description openapi ts TypeScript code generator with 20+ plugins for SDKs, Zod schemas, TanStack Query…
read the full hey-api overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Insomnia or hey-api more popular?
Insomnia has 40,111 GitHub stars and hey-api has 5,551. Insomnia has the larger community by that measure.
Are Insomnia and hey-api free?
Both are open source. Insomnia is licensed under Apache-2.0 and hey-api under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Insomnia and hey-api?
Insomnia is written in TypeScript and hey-api in TypeScript. 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 hey-api?
Choose Insomnia if you want the larger community (40,111 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose hey-api if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.