head to head · open source
Insomnia vs orpc
Insomnia has 40,111 GitHub stars, 2,388 forks, 874 open issues and last shipped yesterday. orpc has 5,750 stars, 175 forks, 27 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Insomnia leads on adoption by 598% (40,111 vs 5,750 stars). Insomnia is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; orpc is written in TypeScript under MIT. Insomnia has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, orpc 3%. orpc 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 | orpc | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 5.8K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 175 |
| 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 orpc if
- You want the orpc feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and orpc 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 orpc
oRPC Typesafe APIs Made Simple 🪄 Documentation You can read the documentation here. Packages Core Schema validation Built in features Framework & ecosystem integrations @orpc/next Integrate with Next.js Server Functions. Next.js
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Frequently asked questions
Is Insomnia or orpc more popular?
Insomnia has 40,111 GitHub stars and orpc has 5,750. Insomnia has the larger community by that measure.
Are Insomnia and orpc free?
Both are open source. Insomnia is licensed under Apache-2.0 and orpc under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Insomnia and orpc?
Insomnia is written in TypeScript and orpc 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 orpc?
Choose Insomnia if you want the larger community (40,111 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose orpc if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.