head to head · open source
Insomnia vs redocly-cli
Insomnia has 40,022 GitHub stars, 2,367 forks, 874 open issues and last shipped yesterday. redocly-cli has 1,510 stars, 228 forks, 166 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Insomnia leads on adoption by 2,550% (40,022 vs 1,510 stars). Insomnia is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; redocly-cli is written in TypeScript under MIT. Insomnia has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, redocly-cli 15%. 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 | redocly-cli | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 1.5K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 228 |
| 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 redocly-cli if
- You want the redocly-cli feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and redocly-cli 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 redocly-cli
Redocly CLI is a TypeScript, MIT licensed command line toolset that lints, bundles, validates, tests, and renders OpenAPI, AsyncAPI, and Arazzo descriptions, built for API designers, platform teams, and CI pipelines that need API governance and reference documentation without adopting a hosted service.
read the full redocly-cli overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Insomnia or redocly-cli more popular?
Insomnia has 40,022 GitHub stars and redocly-cli has 1,510. Insomnia has the larger community by that measure.
Are Insomnia and redocly-cli free?
Both are open source. Insomnia is licensed under Apache-2.0 and redocly-cli under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Insomnia and redocly-cli?
Insomnia is written in TypeScript and redocly-cli 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 redocly-cli?
Choose Insomnia if you want the larger community (40,022 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose redocly-cli if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.