head to head · open source
Insomnia vs Tyk
Insomnia has 40,021 GitHub stars, 2,365 forks, 874 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Tyk has 10,822 stars, 1,166 forks, 509 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Insomnia leads on adoption by 270% (40,021 vs 10,822 stars). Insomnia is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; Tyk is written in Go under a custom or non-standard licence. Insomnia has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, Tyk 11%. Tyk was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (api, graphql, grpc), 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 | Tyk | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 11K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Custom / other |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 1.2K |
| 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 Tyk if
- You want the Tyk feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and Tyk 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 Tyk
Tyk is an open source API Gateway written in Go. The GitHub description names Tyk as an Open Source API Gateway written in Go, supporting REST, GraphQL, TCP and gRPC protocols. The tagline names it a Universal API management for REST, GraphQL, gRPC and async. It lives in the developer tools, API development and testing ecosystem. It acts as a reverse proxy for microservices and cloud native workloads.
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Frequently asked questions
Is Insomnia or Tyk more popular?
Insomnia has 40,021 GitHub stars and Tyk has 10,822. Insomnia has the larger community by that measure.
Are Insomnia and Tyk free?
Both are open source. Insomnia is licensed under Apache-2.0, and Tyk has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Insomnia and Tyk?
Insomnia is written in TypeScript and Tyk in Go. 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 Tyk?
Choose Insomnia if you want the larger community (40,021 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Tyk if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.