head to head · open source
Insomnia vs mcpo
Insomnia has 40,111 GitHub stars, 2,388 forks, 874 open issues and last shipped yesterday. mcpo has 4,414 stars, 508 forks, 56 open issues and last shipped 6 months ago. Insomnia leads on adoption by 809% (40,111 vs 4,414 stars). Insomnia is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; mcpo is written in Python under MIT. Insomnia has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, mcpo 12%. 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 | mcpo | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 4.4K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-05-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 508 |
| 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 mcpo if
- You want the mcpo feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and mcpo 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 mcpo
⚡️ mcpo Expose any MCP tool as an OpenAPI compatible HTTP server—instantly. mcpo is a dead simple proxy that takes an MCP server command and makes it accessible via standard RESTful OpenAPI, so your tools "just work" with LLM agents and apps expecting OpenAPI servers. No custom protocol. No glue code. No hassle. 🤔 Why Use mcpo Instead of Native MCP? MCP servers usually speak over raw stdio, which is: 🔓 Inherently insecure ❌ Incompatible with most tools 🧩 Missing standard features like docs, auth, error handling, etc. mcpo solves all of that—without extra effort: ✅ Works instantly with OpenAPI tools, SDKs, and…
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Frequently asked questions
Is Insomnia or mcpo more popular?
Insomnia has 40,111 GitHub stars and mcpo has 4,414. Insomnia has the larger community by that measure.
Are Insomnia and mcpo free?
Both are open source. Insomnia is licensed under Apache-2.0 and mcpo under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Insomnia and mcpo?
Insomnia is written in TypeScript and mcpo 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 mcpo?
Choose Insomnia if you want the larger community (40,111 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose mcpo if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.