head to head · open source
Insomnia vs swagger-jsdoc
Insomnia has 40,111 GitHub stars, 2,388 forks, 874 open issues and last shipped yesterday. swagger-jsdoc has 1,790 stars, 229 forks, 47 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Insomnia leads on adoption by 2,141% (40,111 vs 1,790 stars). Insomnia is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; swagger-jsdoc is written in JavaScript under MIT. Insomnia has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, swagger-jsdoc 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 | swagger-jsdoc | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 1.8K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-01 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 229 |
| 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 swagger-jsdoc if
- You want the swagger-jsdoc feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and swagger-jsdoc 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 swagger-jsdoc
swagger jsdoc This library reads your JSDoc annotated source code and generates an OpenAPI (Swagger) specification. Getting started Imagine having API files like these: The library will take the contents of @openapi (or @swagger ) with the following configuration: The resulting openapiSpecification will be a swagger tools compatible (and validated) specification. System requirements Node.js 20.x or higher You are viewing swagger jsdoc v6 which is published in CommonJS module system. Installation Or Supported specifications OpenAPI 3.x Swagger 2 AsyncAPI 2.0 Validation of swagger docs By default swagger jsdoc…
read the full swagger-jsdoc overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Insomnia or swagger-jsdoc more popular?
Insomnia has 40,111 GitHub stars and swagger-jsdoc has 1,790. Insomnia has the larger community by that measure.
Are Insomnia and swagger-jsdoc free?
Both are open source. Insomnia is licensed under Apache-2.0 and swagger-jsdoc under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Insomnia and swagger-jsdoc?
Insomnia is written in TypeScript and swagger-jsdoc 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 swagger-jsdoc?
Choose Insomnia if you want the larger community (40,111 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose swagger-jsdoc if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.