head to head · open source
Insomnia vs schemathesis
Insomnia has 40,111 GitHub stars, 2,388 forks, 874 open issues and last shipped yesterday. schemathesis has 3,738 stars, 231 forks, 7 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Insomnia leads on adoption by 973% (40,111 vs 3,738 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%. schemathesis was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (api, graphql, grpc), 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 | schemathesis | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 3.7K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 231 |
| 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 API Client Insomnia is an open source, cross platform API client for GraphQL, REST, WebSockets, Server Sent Events (SSE), gRPC and any other HTTP compatible protocol. With Insomnia you can: Debug APIs using the most popular protocols and formats. Design APIs using the native OpenAPI editor and visual preview. Test APIs using native test suites and collection runner. Mock APIs using a cloud or self hosted mocking server. Build CI/CD pipelines using the native Insomnia CLI for linting and testing. Collaborate with others using the many collaboration features. And more including the ability to use 3rd…
read the full Insomnia overview →
About schemathesis
Schemathesis Catch API bugs before your users do. Schemathesis tests OpenAPI and GraphQL APIs by generating inputs from your schema, adapting to server responses, and chaining operations into realistic workflows. Finding bugs that manual testing missed Try it now What problems does it solve? 💥 500 errors that crash your API on edge case inputs 📋 Schema violations where your API returns different data than documented 🚪 Validation bypasses where invalid data gets accepted 🔗 Integration failures when responses don't match client expectations 🔄 Stateful bugs where operations work individually but fail in…
read the full schemathesis overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Insomnia or schemathesis more popular?
Insomnia has 40,111 GitHub stars and schemathesis has 3,738. 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 (40,111 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose schemathesis if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.