head to head · open source
Insomnia vs schemathesis
Insomnia has 40,021 GitHub stars, 2,365 forks, 874 open issues and last shipped yesterday. schemathesis has 3,608 stars, 224 forks, 7 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Insomnia leads on adoption by 1,009% (40,021 vs 3,608 stars). Insomnia is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; schemathesis is written in Python under MIT. Insomnia has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, schemathesis 6%. Insomnia was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (api, graphql), 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.
← all 8884 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Insomnia | schemathesis | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 3.6K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 224 |
| 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 schemathesis if
- You want the schemathesis feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and schemathesis 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 schemathesis
Schemathesis is a Python API testing tool that generates test inputs from OpenAPI and GraphQL schemas. It adapts to server responses, chains operations into realistic workflows, and checks whether the API behaves as documented. The project lives in the Python developer tools ecosystem and connects with pytest, unittest, and property based testing workflows.
read the full schemathesis overview →
More in Developer Tools
Related comparisons
More API Development & Testing projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the API Development & Testing field.
Frequently asked questions
Is Insomnia or schemathesis more popular?
Insomnia has 40,021 GitHub stars and schemathesis has 3,608. Insomnia has the larger community by that measure.
Are Insomnia and schemathesis free?
Both are open source. Insomnia is licensed under Apache-2.0 and schemathesis under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Insomnia and schemathesis?
Insomnia is written in TypeScript and schemathesis in Python. 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 schemathesis?
Choose Insomnia if you want the larger community (40,021 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose schemathesis if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.