head to head · open source
Insomnia vs kubb
Insomnia has 40,022 GitHub stars, 2,366 forks, 874 open issues and last shipped yesterday. kubb has 1,802 stars, 147 forks, 6 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Insomnia leads on adoption by 2,121% (40,022 vs 1,802 stars). Insomnia is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; kubb is written in TypeScript under MIT. Insomnia has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, kubb 8%. kubb 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 | kubb | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 1.8K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 147 |
| 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 kubb if
- You want the kubb feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and kubb 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 kubb
Kubb is an MIT licensed TypeScript meta framework for code generation that turns an OpenAPI schema into type safe TypeScript types, HTTP clients, data fetching hooks, validators, and mocks for front end and full stack developers.
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Frequently asked questions
Is Insomnia or kubb more popular?
Insomnia has 40,022 GitHub stars and kubb has 1,802. Insomnia has the larger community by that measure.
Are Insomnia and kubb free?
Both are open source. Insomnia is licensed under Apache-2.0 and kubb under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Insomnia and kubb?
Insomnia is written in TypeScript and kubb 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 kubb?
Choose Insomnia if you want the larger community (40,022 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose kubb if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.