head to head · open source
Insomnia vs WindsurfAPI
Insomnia has 40,021 GitHub stars, 2,365 forks, 874 open issues and last shipped yesterday. WindsurfAPI has 3,021 stars, 628 forks, 7 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Insomnia leads on adoption by 1,225% (40,021 vs 3,021 stars). Insomnia is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; WindsurfAPI is written in JavaScript under MIT. Insomnia has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, WindsurfAPI 21%. 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 | WindsurfAPI | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 3.0K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 628 |
| 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 WindsurfAPI if
- You want the WindsurfAPI feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and WindsurfAPI 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 WindsurfAPI
WindsurfAPI is a self hosted reverse proxy written in JavaScript and licensed under MIT. It exposes OpenAI, Anthropic, and Gemini compatible HTTP endpoints for 100+ Windsurf and Devin Desktop AI models. It has zero npm runtime dependencies. The project sits in the Developer Tools / API Development & Testing category and uses the Node.js ecosystem.
read the full WindsurfAPI overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Insomnia or WindsurfAPI more popular?
Insomnia has 40,021 GitHub stars and WindsurfAPI has 3,021. Insomnia has the larger community by that measure.
Are Insomnia and WindsurfAPI free?
Both are open source. Insomnia is licensed under Apache-2.0 and WindsurfAPI under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Insomnia and WindsurfAPI?
Insomnia is written in TypeScript and WindsurfAPI 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 WindsurfAPI?
Choose Insomnia if you want the larger community (40,021 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose WindsurfAPI if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.