head to head · open source
Insomnia vs light-4j
Insomnia has 40,111 GitHub stars, 2,388 forks, 874 open issues and last shipped yesterday. light-4j has 3,676 stars, 623 forks, 15 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Insomnia leads on adoption by 991% (40,111 vs 3,676 stars). Insomnia is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; light-4j is written in Java under Apache-2.0. Insomnia has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, light-4j 17%. light-4j 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 | light-4j | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 3.7K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Java |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 623 |
| 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 light-4j if
- You want the light-4j feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and light-4j 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 light-4j
A fast, lightweight and cloud native microservices framework. Stack Overflow Google Group Gitter Chat Subreddit Youtube Channel Documentation Contribution Guide Why call it Light 4J Light means lightweight, lightning fast and shedding light on how to program with modern Java SE for cloud native deployment. Why am I doing it I had been working on the Java EE platforms since early 2000 and suffered the performance and productivity issues. In 2014, I realized that the IT industry was moving from Monolithic to Microservices and from on premise data centers to the public clouds. To reduce the production cost for my…
read the full light-4j overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Insomnia or light-4j more popular?
Insomnia has 40,111 GitHub stars and light-4j has 3,676. Insomnia has the larger community by that measure.
Are Insomnia and light-4j free?
Both are open source. Insomnia is licensed under Apache-2.0 and light-4j under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Insomnia and light-4j?
Insomnia is written in TypeScript and light-4j in Java. 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 light-4j?
Choose Insomnia if you want the larger community (40,111 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose light-4j if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.