head to head · open source
Insomnia vs Yaak
Insomnia has 40,021 GitHub stars, 2,365 forks, 874 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Yaak has 19,224 stars, 813 forks, 19 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Insomnia leads on adoption by 108% (40,021 vs 19,224 stars). Insomnia is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; Yaak is written in TypeScript under MIT. Insomnia has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, Yaak 4%. Yaak was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (graphql, grpc, http-client), 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 | Yaak | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 19K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 813 |
| 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 Yaak if
- You want the Yaak feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Yaak 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 Yaak
Yaak is a desktop API client for REST, GraphQL, gRPC, WebSocket, and Server Sent Events. It is built with Tauri, Rust, and React, and it lives in the developer tools ecosystem for API development and testing. The project presents itself as an offline first, privacy first alternative to Postman, Insomnia, and Bruno.
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Frequently asked questions
Is Insomnia or Yaak more popular?
Insomnia has 40,021 GitHub stars and Yaak has 19,224. Insomnia has the larger community by that measure.
Are Insomnia and Yaak free?
Both are open source. Insomnia is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Yaak under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Insomnia and Yaak?
Insomnia is written in TypeScript and Yaak 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 Yaak?
Choose Insomnia if you want the larger community (40,021 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Yaak if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.