head to head · open source
Insomnia vs higress
Insomnia has 40,111 GitHub stars, 2,388 forks, 874 open issues and last shipped yesterday. higress has 9,695 stars, 1,379 forks, 1,114 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Insomnia leads on adoption by 314% (40,111 vs 9,695 stars). Insomnia is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; higress is written in Go under Apache-2.0. Insomnia has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, higress 14%. 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 | higress | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 9.7K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 1.4K |
| 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 higress if
- You want the higress 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 higress 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 higress
AI Gateway AI Native API Gateway Official Site Docs Blog Roadmap MCP Server QuickStart Developer Guide Wasm Plugin Hub English 中文 日本語 What is Higress? Higress is a cloud native API gateway based on Istio and Envoy, which can be extended with Wasm plugins written in Go/Rust/JS. It provides dozens of ready to use general purpose plugins and an out of the box console (try the demo here). Core Use Cases Higress's AI gateway capabilities support all mainstream model providers both domestic and international. It also supports hosting MCP (Model Context Protocol) Servers through its plugin mechanism, enabling AI Agents…
read the full higress overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Insomnia or higress more popular?
Insomnia has 40,111 GitHub stars and higress has 9,695. Insomnia has the larger community by that measure.
Are Insomnia and higress free?
Both are open source. Insomnia is licensed under Apache-2.0 and higress under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Insomnia and higress?
Insomnia is written in TypeScript and higress 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 higress?
Choose Insomnia if you want the larger community (40,111 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose higress if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.