head to head · open source
Insomnia vs php-vcr
Insomnia has 40,111 GitHub stars, 2,388 forks, 874 open issues and last shipped yesterday. php-vcr has 1,220 stars, 214 forks, 24 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Insomnia leads on adoption by 3,188% (40,111 vs 1,220 stars). Insomnia is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; php-vcr is written in PHP under MIT. Insomnia has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, php-vcr 18%. 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-vcr | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 1.2K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-01 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 214 |
| 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-vcr if
- You want the php-vcr feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and php-vcr 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 php-vcr
This is a port of the VCR Ruby library to PHP. Record your test suite's HTTP interactions and replay them during future test runs for fast, deterministic, accurate tests. Full documentation lives at php vcr.github.io/php vcr — or browse the raw Markdown in docs/ . Disclaimer: Doing this in PHP is not as easy as in programming languages which support monkey patching (I'm looking at you, Ruby) Features Automatically records and replays your HTTP(s) interactions with minimal setup/configuration code. Supports common http functions and extensions — see Supported HTTP libraries below The same request can receive…
read the full php-vcr overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Insomnia or php-vcr more popular?
Insomnia has 40,111 GitHub stars and php-vcr has 1,220. Insomnia has the larger community by that measure.
Are Insomnia and php-vcr free?
Both are open source. Insomnia is licensed under Apache-2.0 and php-vcr under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Insomnia and php-vcr?
Insomnia is written in TypeScript and php-vcr 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-vcr?
Choose Insomnia if you want the larger community (40,111 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose php-vcr if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.