head to head · open source
Insomnia vs NelmioApiDocBundle
Insomnia has 40,111 GitHub stars, 2,388 forks, 874 open issues and last shipped yesterday. NelmioApiDocBundle has 2,378 stars, 914 forks, 55 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Insomnia leads on adoption by 1,587% (40,111 vs 2,378 stars). Insomnia is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; NelmioApiDocBundle is written in PHP under MIT. Insomnia has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, NelmioApiDocBundle 38%. 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), 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 | NelmioApiDocBundle | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 2.4K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 914 |
| 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 NelmioApiDocBundle if
- You want the NelmioApiDocBundle feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and NelmioApiDocBundle 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 NelmioApiDocBundle
NelmioApiDocBundle The NelmioApiDocBundle bundle allows you to generate a decent documentation for your APIs. Installation Open a command console, enter your project directory and execute the following command to download the latest version of this bundle: Documentation Read the documentation on symfony.com Migrate from 4.x to 5.0 To migrate from 4.x to 5.0, follow our guide. This version comes with the following major changes: The bundle now requires PHP 8.1 or higher. Support for annotations has been removed in favor of PHP 8 attributes. Minimum Symfony version is now 6.4. Major cleanup and simplification of…
read the full NelmioApiDocBundle overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Insomnia or NelmioApiDocBundle more popular?
Insomnia has 40,111 GitHub stars and NelmioApiDocBundle has 2,378. Insomnia has the larger community by that measure.
Are Insomnia and NelmioApiDocBundle free?
Both are open source. Insomnia is licensed under Apache-2.0 and NelmioApiDocBundle under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Insomnia and NelmioApiDocBundle?
Insomnia is written in TypeScript and NelmioApiDocBundle in PHP. 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 NelmioApiDocBundle?
Choose Insomnia if you want the larger community (40,111 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose NelmioApiDocBundle if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.