head to head · open source
Insomnia vs php-crud-api
Insomnia has 40,022 GitHub stars, 2,366 forks, 874 open issues and last shipped today. php-crud-api has 3,738 stars, 1,029 forks, 85 open issues and last shipped 21 days ago. Insomnia leads on adoption by 971% (40,022 vs 3,738 stars). Insomnia is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; php-crud-api is written in PHP under MIT. Insomnia has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, php-crud-api 28%. 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 | php-crud-api | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 3.7K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-08-28 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 1.0K |
| 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 php-crud-api if
- You want the php-crud-api feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and php-crud-api 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 php-crud-api
PHP CRUD API Single file PHP script that adds a REST API to a MySQL/MariaDB, PostgreSQL, SQL Server or SQLite database. Howto: Upload " api.php " to your webserver, configure it to connect to your database, have an instant full featured REST API. NB: This is the TreeQL reference implementation in PHP. Requirements PHP 7.2 or higher with PDO drivers enabled for one of these database systems: MySQL 5.7 / MariaDB 10.0 or higher for spatial features in MySQL PostgreSQL 9.5 or higher with PostGIS 2.2 or higher for spatial features SQL Server 2017 or higher (2019 also has Linux support) SQLite 3.22 or higher (spatial f…
read the full php-crud-api overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Insomnia or php-crud-api more popular?
Insomnia has 40,022 GitHub stars and php-crud-api has 3,738. Insomnia has the larger community by that measure.
Are Insomnia and php-crud-api free?
Both are open source. Insomnia is licensed under Apache-2.0 and php-crud-api under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Insomnia and php-crud-api?
Insomnia is written in TypeScript and php-crud-api in PHP. 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 php-crud-api?
Choose Insomnia if you want the larger community (40,022 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose php-crud-api if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.