head to head · open source
Insomnia vs nba_api
Insomnia has 40,021 GitHub stars, 2,365 forks, 874 open issues and last shipped yesterday. nba_api has 3,777 stars, 721 forks, 111 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. Insomnia leads on adoption by 960% (40,021 vs 3,777 stars). Insomnia is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; nba_api is written in Python under MIT. Insomnia has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, nba_api 19%. Insomnia was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (api-client, http-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 | nba_api | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 3.8K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-08-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 721 |
| 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 nba_api if
- You want the nba_api feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and nba_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 nba_api
nba api is a Python package that acts as an API client for the web APIs used by NBA.com. It lives in the Python developer tools ecosystem and is distributed as an open source project under the MIT license. The package is designed to make official NBA.com data accessible through Python code, while also documenting the endpoints and parameters that the site exposes.
read the full nba_api overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Insomnia or nba_api more popular?
Insomnia has 40,021 GitHub stars and nba_api has 3,777. Insomnia has the larger community by that measure.
Are Insomnia and nba_api free?
Both are open source. Insomnia is licensed under Apache-2.0 and nba_api under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Insomnia and nba_api?
Insomnia is written in TypeScript and nba_api 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 nba_api?
Choose Insomnia if you want the larger community (40,021 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose nba_api if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.