head to head · open source
Insomnia vs tailchat
Insomnia has 40,111 GitHub stars, 2,388 forks, 874 open issues and last shipped yesterday. tailchat has 3,644 stars, 399 forks, 128 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. Insomnia leads on adoption by 1,001% (40,111 vs 3,644 stars). Insomnia is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; tailchat is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. Insomnia has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, tailchat 11%. 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 | tailchat | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 3.6K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 399 |
| 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 tailchat if
- You want the tailchat 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 tailchat 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 tailchat
Tailchat 简体中文 Next generation noIM application in your own workspace Not only another Slack , Discord , Rocket.Chat .... If you are interested in the concept of noIM , welcome to read my blog: It's time to officially step into the era of noIM Official Documentation: Nightly version Try it online: Nightly version is the automatic compile version, that means, every commit code will be automatically compiled. The reliability and stability of the data are not guaranteed, you can deploy with stable version with docker images or github release page Motivation At present, the existing IM applications only focus on…
read the full tailchat overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Insomnia or tailchat more popular?
Insomnia has 40,111 GitHub stars and tailchat has 3,644. Insomnia has the larger community by that measure.
Are Insomnia and tailchat free?
Both are open source. Insomnia is licensed under Apache-2.0 and tailchat under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Insomnia and tailchat?
Insomnia is written in TypeScript and tailchat 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 tailchat?
Choose Insomnia if you want the larger community (40,111 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose tailchat if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.