head to head · open source
Insomnia vs Zappa
Insomnia has 40,021 GitHub stars, 2,365 forks, 874 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Zappa has 3,695 stars, 392 forks, 23 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. Insomnia leads on adoption by 983% (40,021 vs 3,695 stars). Insomnia is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; Zappa is written in Python under MIT. Insomnia has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, Zappa 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.
← all 8884 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Insomnia | Zappa | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 3.7K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-15 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 392 |
| 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 Zappa if
- You want the Zappa feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and Zappa 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 Zappa
Zappa is an open source Python project for deploying serverless web applications and APIs on AWS. It lives in the Python web framework ecosystem and the AWS serverless ecosystem, with topic tags for Flask, Django, Pyramid, Bottle, AWS Lambda, API Gateway, and ALB. The project is distributed under the MIT license and is categorized as a developer tool for API development and testing.
read the full Zappa overview →
More in Developer Tools
Related comparisons
More API Development & Testing projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the API Development & Testing field.
Frequently asked questions
Is Insomnia or Zappa more popular?
Insomnia has 40,021 GitHub stars and Zappa has 3,695. Insomnia has the larger community by that measure.
Are Insomnia and Zappa free?
Both are open source. Insomnia is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Zappa under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Insomnia and Zappa?
Insomnia is written in TypeScript and Zappa in Python. 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 Zappa?
Choose Insomnia if you want the larger community (40,021 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Zappa if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.