head to head · open source
Insomnia vs Ocelot
Insomnia has 40,021 GitHub stars, 2,365 forks, 874 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Ocelot has 8,715 stars, 1,683 forks, 57 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Insomnia leads on adoption by 359% (40,021 vs 8,715 stars). Insomnia is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; Ocelot is written in C# under MIT. Insomnia has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, Ocelot 19%. Ocelot 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 | Ocelot | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 8.7K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | C# |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 1.7K |
| 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 Ocelot if
- You want the Ocelot feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches C#
- You evaluated both and Ocelot 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 Ocelot
Ocelot is a .NET API gateway built as a series of ASP.NET Core middlewares arranged in a specific order. It is aimed at teams running a microservices or service oriented architecture on .NET that need a unified point of entry into their system, though the README notes it will work with anything that speaks HTTP(S) and runs on any platform that ASP.NET Core supports. The project lives in the .NET ecosystem, is written in C , and is distributed under the MIT license.
read the full Ocelot overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Insomnia or Ocelot more popular?
Insomnia has 40,021 GitHub stars and Ocelot has 8,715. Insomnia has the larger community by that measure.
Are Insomnia and Ocelot free?
Both are open source. Insomnia is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Ocelot under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Insomnia and Ocelot?
Insomnia is written in TypeScript and Ocelot in C#. 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 Ocelot?
Choose Insomnia if you want the larger community (40,021 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Ocelot if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.