head to head · open source
Insomnia vs runn
Insomnia has 40,021 GitHub stars, 2,365 forks, 874 open issues and last shipped yesterday. runn has 649 stars, 58 forks, 27 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Insomnia leads on adoption by 6,067% (40,021 vs 649 stars). Insomnia is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; runn is written in Go under MIT. Insomnia has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, runn 9%. runn was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (http-client), 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 | runn | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 649 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 58 |
| 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 runn if
- You want the runn feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and runn 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 runn
runn is a Go package and command line tool that runs operations following a scenario, built for developers, testers, and automation engineers who need scenario based testing, workflow automation, or a test helper inside Go test suites.
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Frequently asked questions
Is Insomnia or runn more popular?
Insomnia has 40,021 GitHub stars and runn has 649. Insomnia has the larger community by that measure.
Are Insomnia and runn free?
Both are open source. Insomnia is licensed under Apache-2.0 and runn under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Insomnia and runn?
Insomnia is written in TypeScript and runn in Go. 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 runn?
Choose Insomnia if you want the larger community (40,021 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose runn if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.