head to head · open source
Insomnia vs openapi-typescript-codegen
Insomnia has 40,022 GitHub stars, 2,366 forks, 874 open issues and last shipped today. openapi-typescript-codegen has 3,369 stars, 546 forks, 213 open issues and last shipped 6 days ago. Insomnia leads on adoption by 1,088% (40,022 vs 3,369 stars). Insomnia is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; openapi-typescript-codegen is written in TypeScript under MIT. Insomnia has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, openapi-typescript-codegen 16%. 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-codegen | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 3.4K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-12 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 546 |
| 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-codegen if
- You want the openapi-typescript-codegen 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-codegen 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-codegen
Important announcement [!IMPORTANT] Please migrate your projects to use @hey api/openapi ts Due to time limitations on my end, this project has been unmaintained for a while now. The @hey api/openapi ts project started as a fork with the goal to resolve the most pressing issues. going forward they are planning to maintain the OpenAPI generator and give it the love it deserves. Please support them with their work and make sure to migrate your projects: All open PR's and issues will be archived on the 1st of May 2024 All versions of this package will be deprecated in NPM 👋 Thanks for all the support, downloads and…
read the full openapi-typescript-codegen overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Insomnia or openapi-typescript-codegen more popular?
Insomnia has 40,022 GitHub stars and openapi-typescript-codegen has 3,369. Insomnia has the larger community by that measure.
Are Insomnia and openapi-typescript-codegen free?
Both are open source. Insomnia is licensed under Apache-2.0 and openapi-typescript-codegen under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Insomnia and openapi-typescript-codegen?
Insomnia is written in TypeScript and openapi-typescript-codegen 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-codegen?
Choose Insomnia if you want the larger community (40,022 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose openapi-typescript-codegen if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.