head to head · open source
Insomnia vs kpt
Insomnia has 40,022 GitHub stars, 2,366 forks, 874 open issues and last shipped yesterday. kpt has 1,894 stars, 265 forks, 324 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Insomnia leads on adoption by 2,013% (40,022 vs 1,894 stars). Insomnia is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; kpt is written in Go under Apache-2.0. Insomnia has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, kpt 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 | kpt | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 1.9K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 265 |
| 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 kpt if
- You want the kpt 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 kpt 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 kpt
kpt is an Apache 2.0, Go based, package centric toolchain that automates the authoring, transformation, validation, and delivery of Kubernetes configuration as data, aimed at platform engineers and infrastructure teams that manage Kubernetes platforms and KRM driven infrastructure at scale.
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Frequently asked questions
Is Insomnia or kpt more popular?
Insomnia has 40,022 GitHub stars and kpt has 1,894. Insomnia has the larger community by that measure.
Are Insomnia and kpt free?
Both are open source. Insomnia is licensed under Apache-2.0 and kpt under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Insomnia and kpt?
Insomnia is written in TypeScript and kpt 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 kpt?
Choose Insomnia if you want the larger community (40,022 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose kpt if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.