head to head · open source
Insomnia vs serverless-express
Insomnia has 40,111 GitHub stars, 2,388 forks, 874 open issues and last shipped yesterday. serverless-express has 5,262 stars, 671 forks, 101 open issues and last shipped 7 months ago. Insomnia leads on adoption by 662% (40,111 vs 5,262 stars). Insomnia is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; serverless-express is written in JavaScript under Apache-2.0. Insomnia has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, serverless-express 13%. 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 | serverless-express | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 5.3K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-04-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 671 |
| 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 serverless-express if
- You want the serverless-express feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and serverless-express 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 serverless-express
v5.0.0 Released! Includes Node.js 24 support and removal of deprecated APIs. See UPGRADE.md for upgrade instructions from v4. Serverless Express by Starting a new software project? Check out Code Genie a Full Stack App Generator that delivers a complete AWS Serverless project with source code, based on your data model. Including: 1. A React Next.js Web App hosted on Amplify Hosting 1. Serverless Express REST API running on API Gateway and Lambda 1. Cognito User Pools for Identity/Authentication 1. DynamoDB Database 1. Cloud Development Kit (CDK) for Infrastructure as Code (IAC) 1. Continuous Integration/Delivery…
read the full serverless-express overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Insomnia or serverless-express more popular?
Insomnia has 40,111 GitHub stars and serverless-express has 5,262. Insomnia has the larger community by that measure.
Are Insomnia and serverless-express free?
Both are open source. Insomnia is licensed under Apache-2.0 and serverless-express under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Insomnia and serverless-express?
Insomnia is written in TypeScript and serverless-express in JavaScript. 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 serverless-express?
Choose Insomnia if you want the larger community (40,111 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose serverless-express if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.