head to head · open source
Insomnia vs openapi-typescript
Insomnia has 40,021 GitHub stars, 2,365 forks, 874 open issues and last shipped yesterday. openapi-typescript has 8,369 stars, 665 forks, 300 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Insomnia leads on adoption by 378% (40,021 vs 8,369 stars). Insomnia is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; openapi-typescript is written in TypeScript under MIT. Insomnia has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, openapi-typescript 8%. 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 | openapi-typescript | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 8.4K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 665 |
| 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 openapi-typescript if
- You want the openapi-typescript feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and openapi-typescript 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 openapi-typescript
openapi typescript is a monorepo of tools for consuming OpenAPI schemas in TypeScript. It lives in the TypeScript developer tools ecosystem, sits under the Developer Tools / API Development & Testing category, ships under MIT license, and is eight years old. Repo holds 8,366 stars, 665 forks, and 300 open issues, with last push 2026 09 11T00:36:06Z. Topics tagged: openapi, openapi3, openapi3 1, swagger, typescript. Homepage at https://openapi ts.dev.
read the full openapi-typescript overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Insomnia or openapi-typescript more popular?
Insomnia has 40,021 GitHub stars and openapi-typescript has 8,369. Insomnia has the larger community by that measure.
Are Insomnia and openapi-typescript free?
Both are open source. Insomnia is licensed under Apache-2.0 and openapi-typescript under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Insomnia and openapi-typescript?
Insomnia is written in TypeScript and openapi-typescript 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 openapi-typescript?
Choose Insomnia if you want the larger community (40,021 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose openapi-typescript if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.