head to head · open source
Insomnia vs zenstack
Insomnia has 40,022 GitHub stars, 2,366 forks, 874 open issues and last shipped today. zenstack has 2,945 stars, 156 forks, 182 open issues and last shipped 8 days ago. Insomnia leads on adoption by 1,259% (40,022 vs 2,945 stars). Insomnia is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; zenstack is written in TypeScript under MIT. Insomnia has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, zenstack 5%. Insomnia was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (api), 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 | zenstack | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 2.9K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-10 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 156 |
| 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 zenstack if
- You want the zenstack feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and zenstack 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 zenstack
Modern Data Layer for TypeScript Apps What's ZenStack Read full documentation at 👉🏻 ZenStack is a TypeScript database toolkit for developing full stack or backend Node.js/Bun applications. It provides a unified data modeling and query solution with the following features: 🔧 Modern schema first ORM that's compatible with Prisma's schema and API 📊 Versatile API high level ORM queries + low level Kysely query builder 🔐 Built in access control and data validation 🚀 Advanced data modeling patterns like polymorphism 🧩 Designed for extensibility and flexibility ⚙️ Automatic CRUD web APIs with adapters for popular…
read the full zenstack overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Insomnia or zenstack more popular?
Insomnia has 40,022 GitHub stars and zenstack has 2,945. Insomnia has the larger community by that measure.
Are Insomnia and zenstack free?
Both are open source. Insomnia is licensed under Apache-2.0 and zenstack under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Insomnia and zenstack?
Insomnia is written in TypeScript and zenstack 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 zenstack?
Choose Insomnia if you want the larger community (40,022 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose zenstack if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.