head to head · open source
Insomnia vs php-vcr
Insomnia has 40,021 GitHub stars, 2,365 forks, 874 open issues and last shipped yesterday. php-vcr has 1,212 stars, 215 forks, 24 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. Insomnia leads on adoption by 3,202% (40,021 vs 1,212 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 | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-13 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 215 |
| 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 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-vcr
php vcr is an MIT licensed PHP library that records a test suite's HTTP interactions into cassette files and replays them on later runs, giving PHPUnit style projects fast, deterministic tests that do not touch the live network.
read the full php-vcr overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Insomnia or php-vcr more popular?
Insomnia has 40,021 GitHub stars and php-vcr has 1,212. 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 (40,021 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.