head to head · open source
Insomnia vs wiremock
Insomnia has 40,111 GitHub stars, 2,388 forks, 874 open issues and last shipped yesterday. wiremock has 7,415 stars, 1,533 forks, 503 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Insomnia leads on adoption by 441% (40,111 vs 7,415 stars). Insomnia is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; wiremock is written in Java under Apache-2.0. Insomnia has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, wiremock 21%. wiremock 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 | wiremock | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 7.4K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Java |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 1.5K |
| 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 wiremock if
- You want the wiremock 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 wiremock 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 wiremock
WireMock flexible, open source API mocking WireMock open source is supported by WireMock Cloud . Please consider trying it out if your team needs advanced capabilities such as OpenAPI, dynamic state, data sources and more. WireMock is the popular open source tool for API mocking, with over 6 million downloads per month, and powers WireMock Cloud. It can help you to create stable test and development environments, isolate yourself from flaky 3rd parties and simulate APIs that don’t exist yet. Started in 2011 as a Java library by Tom Akehurst, now WireMock spans across multiple programming languages and technology…
read the full wiremock overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Insomnia or wiremock more popular?
Insomnia has 40,111 GitHub stars and wiremock has 7,415. Insomnia has the larger community by that measure.
Are Insomnia and wiremock free?
Both are open source. Insomnia is licensed under Apache-2.0 and wiremock under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Insomnia and wiremock?
Insomnia is written in TypeScript and wiremock 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 wiremock?
Choose Insomnia if you want the larger community (40,111 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose wiremock if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.