head to head · open source
Insomnia vs macai
Insomnia has 40,021 GitHub stars, 2,365 forks, 874 open issues and last shipped yesterday. macai has 931 stars, 77 forks, 44 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. Insomnia leads on adoption by 4,199% (40,021 vs 931 stars). Insomnia is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; macai is written in Swift under Apache-2.0. Insomnia has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, macai 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 | macai | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 931 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Swift |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-08-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 77 |
| 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 macai if
- You want the macai feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Swift
- You evaluated both and macai 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 macai
macai is an all in one native macOS AI chat application that connects to virtually any AI provider — ChatGPT, Claude, xAI (Grok), Google Gemini, Perplexity, Ollama, OpenRouter, and almost any OpenAI compatible API — and it is built for people on macOS 14.0 or later who want one app instead of a different client per provider.
read the full macai overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Insomnia or macai more popular?
Insomnia has 40,021 GitHub stars and macai has 931. Insomnia has the larger community by that measure.
Are Insomnia and macai free?
Both are open source. Insomnia is licensed under Apache-2.0 and macai under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Insomnia and macai?
Insomnia is written in TypeScript and macai in Swift. 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 macai?
Choose Insomnia if you want the larger community (40,021 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose macai if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.