head to head · open source
Insomnia vs node-vault
Insomnia has 40,111 GitHub stars, 2,388 forks, 874 open issues and last shipped yesterday. node-vault has 557 stars, 160 forks, 15 open issues and last shipped 23 days ago. Insomnia leads on adoption by 7,101% (40,111 vs 557 stars). Insomnia is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; node-vault is written in JavaScript under MIT. Insomnia has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, node-vault 29%. 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, api-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 | node-vault | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 557 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-11 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 160 |
| 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 node-vault if
- You want the node-vault feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and node-vault 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 node-vault
node vault A client for the HTTP API of HashiCorp's [Vault] written for Node.js. Install Prerequisites: Node.js = 18.0.0 Note: If you need to use an older version of Node.js ( = 6.x), use node vault Please be aware that node vault Note: Trailing slashes in the endpoint URL (e.g. are automatically stripped to prevent malformed request URIs. Environment Variables The client reads the following environment variables as defaults: Usage Init and unseal Unseal a vault that is already initialized If the vault server has been restarted or sealed, you can unseal it using the unseal keys from the original initialization…
read the full node-vault overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Insomnia or node-vault more popular?
Insomnia has 40,111 GitHub stars and node-vault has 557. Insomnia has the larger community by that measure.
Are Insomnia and node-vault free?
Both are open source. Insomnia is licensed under Apache-2.0 and node-vault under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Insomnia and node-vault?
Insomnia is written in TypeScript and node-vault in JavaScript. 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 node-vault?
Choose Insomnia if you want the larger community (40,111 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose node-vault if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.