head to head · open source
Insomnia vs standard-webhooks
Insomnia has 40,022 GitHub stars, 2,366 forks, 874 open issues and last shipped yesterday. standard-webhooks has 1,748 stars, 71 forks, 62 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Insomnia leads on adoption by 2,190% (40,022 vs 1,748 stars). Insomnia is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; standard-webhooks is written in Java under Apache-2.0. Insomnia has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, standard-webhooks 4%. Insomnia was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (api), 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 | standard-webhooks | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 1.7K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Java |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 71 |
| 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 standard-webhooks if
- You want the standard-webhooks feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and standard-webhooks 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 standard-webhooks
Standard Webhooks is the open specification, plus a set of reference libraries, that defines how services should sign, send and verify HTTP callbacks, written for API providers that emit webhooks and the developers who receive them.
read the full standard-webhooks overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Insomnia or standard-webhooks more popular?
Insomnia has 40,022 GitHub stars and standard-webhooks has 1,748. Insomnia has the larger community by that measure.
Are Insomnia and standard-webhooks free?
Both are open source. Insomnia is licensed under Apache-2.0 and standard-webhooks under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Insomnia and standard-webhooks?
Insomnia is written in TypeScript and standard-webhooks in Java. 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 standard-webhooks?
Choose Insomnia if you want the larger community (40,022 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose standard-webhooks if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.