head to head · open source
Insomnia vs spectral
Insomnia has 40,022 GitHub stars, 2,366 forks, 874 open issues and last shipped today. spectral has 3,208 stars, 293 forks, 222 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Insomnia leads on adoption by 1,148% (40,022 vs 3,208 stars). Insomnia is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; spectral is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. Insomnia has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, spectral 9%. 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 | spectral | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 3.2K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 293 |
| 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 spectral if
- You want the spectral feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and spectral 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 spectral
[ ][stoplight forest] Custom Rulesets : Create custom rules to lint JSON or YAML objects Ready to use Rulesets : Validate and lint OpenAPI v2, v3.0, v3.1 & v3.2 , AsyncAPI , and Arazzo v1 Documents API Style Guides : Automated API Style Guides using rulesets improve consistency across all your APIs Ready to use Functions : Built in set of functions to help create custom rules. Functions include pattern checks, parameter checks, alphabetical ordering, a specified number of characters, provided keys are present in an object, etc. Custom Functions : Create custom functions for advanced use cases Overview 🧰 Installa…
read the full spectral overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Insomnia or spectral more popular?
Insomnia has 40,022 GitHub stars and spectral has 3,208. Insomnia has the larger community by that measure.
Are Insomnia and spectral free?
Both are open source. Insomnia is licensed under Apache-2.0 and spectral under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Insomnia and spectral?
Insomnia is written in TypeScript and spectral 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 spectral?
Choose Insomnia if you want the larger community (40,022 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose spectral if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.