head to head · open source
Insomnia vs portman
Insomnia has 40,021 GitHub stars, 2,365 forks, 874 open issues and last shipped yesterday. portman has 685 stars, 62 forks, 56 open issues and last shipped 9 days ago. Insomnia leads on adoption by 5,742% (40,021 vs 685 stars). Insomnia is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; portman is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. Insomnia has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, portman 9%. Insomnia 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 | portman | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 685 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-09 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 62 |
| 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 portman if
- You want the portman feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and portman 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 portman
Portman is a TypeScript command line tool that ports an OpenAPI document into a Postman collection. It reads the request and response properties defined in an OpenAPI specification and uses them to build the collection, then injects contract and variation tests into the generated requests with a minimum of configuration. The project lives in the API development and testing ecosystem, bridging the contract first OpenAPI world and the Postman collection format. It is published under the Apache 2.0 license, carries 685 stars and 62 forks, and its repository is five years old with 56 open issues.
read the full portman overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Insomnia or portman more popular?
Insomnia has 40,021 GitHub stars and portman has 685. Insomnia has the larger community by that measure.
Are Insomnia and portman free?
Both are open source. Insomnia is licensed under Apache-2.0 and portman under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Insomnia and portman?
Insomnia is written in TypeScript and portman 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 portman?
Choose Insomnia if you want the larger community (40,021 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose portman if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.