head to head · open source
Insomnia vs redoc
Insomnia has 40,021 GitHub stars, 2,365 forks, 874 open issues and last shipped yesterday. redoc has 25,913 stars, 2,395 forks, 449 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Insomnia leads on adoption by 54% (40,021 vs 25,913 stars). Insomnia is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; redoc is written in TypeScript under MIT. Insomnia has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, redoc 9%. 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 | redoc | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 26K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 2.4K |
| 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 redoc if
- You want the redoc feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and redoc 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 redoc
Redoc is an open source tool for generating API reference documentation from OpenAPI definitions, formerly known as Swagger. It lives in the JavaScript and TypeScript ecosystem, ships under the MIT license, and is published on npm as the redoc package. By default it renders a responsive three panel layout: a left panel holding the search bar and navigation menu, a central panel holding the documentation itself, and a right panel showing request and response examples.
read the full redoc overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Insomnia or redoc more popular?
Insomnia has 40,021 GitHub stars and redoc has 25,913. Insomnia has the larger community by that measure.
Are Insomnia and redoc free?
Both are open source. Insomnia is licensed under Apache-2.0 and redoc under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Insomnia and redoc?
Insomnia is written in TypeScript and redoc 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 redoc?
Choose Insomnia if you want the larger community (40,021 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose redoc if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.