head to head · open source
Insomnia vs mangum
Insomnia has 40,022 GitHub stars, 2,366 forks, 874 open issues and last shipped today. mangum has 2,137 stars, 135 forks, 38 open issues and last shipped 14 days ago. Insomnia leads on adoption by 1,773% (40,022 vs 2,137 stars). Insomnia is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; mangum is written in Python under MIT. Insomnia has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, mangum 6%. 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 | mangum | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 2.1K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-04 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 135 |
| 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 mangum if
- You want the mangum feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and mangum 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 mangum
Mangum Mangum is an adapter for running ASGI applications in AWS Lambda to handle Function URL, API Gateway, ALB, and Lambda@Edge events. Documentation : Features Event handlers for API Gateway HTTP and REST APIs, Application Load Balancer, Function URLs, and CloudFront Lambda@Edge. Compatibility with ASGI application frameworks, such as Starlette, FastAPI, Quart and Django. Support for binary media types and payload compression in API Gateway using GZip or Brotli. Works with existing deployment and configuration tools, including Serverless Framework and AWS SAM. Startup and shutdown lifespan events. Installation…
read the full mangum overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Insomnia or mangum more popular?
Insomnia has 40,022 GitHub stars and mangum has 2,137. Insomnia has the larger community by that measure.
Are Insomnia and mangum free?
Both are open source. Insomnia is licensed under Apache-2.0 and mangum under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Insomnia and mangum?
Insomnia is written in TypeScript and mangum in Python. 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 mangum?
Choose Insomnia if you want the larger community (40,022 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose mangum if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.