head to head · open source
Insomnia vs mocker-api
Insomnia has 40,021 GitHub stars, 2,365 forks, 874 open issues and last shipped yesterday. mocker-api has 500 stars, 64 forks, 27 open issues and last shipped 5 months ago. Insomnia leads on adoption by 7,904% (40,021 vs 500 stars). Insomnia is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; mocker-api is written in TypeScript under MIT. Insomnia has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, mocker-api 13%. 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 | mocker-api | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 500 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-04-21 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 64 |
| 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 mocker-api if
- You want the mocker-api feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and mocker-api 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 mocker-api
mocker api is an MIT licensed TypeScript tool that creates mock endpoints for REST APIs, built for developers who need to test an application without running the actual REST API server.
read the full mocker-api overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Insomnia or mocker-api more popular?
Insomnia has 40,021 GitHub stars and mocker-api has 500. Insomnia has the larger community by that measure.
Are Insomnia and mocker-api free?
Both are open source. Insomnia is licensed under Apache-2.0 and mocker-api under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Insomnia and mocker-api?
Insomnia is written in TypeScript and mocker-api 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 mocker-api?
Choose Insomnia if you want the larger community (40,021 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose mocker-api if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.