head to head · open source
Insomnia vs redoc
Insomnia has 40,111 GitHub stars, 2,388 forks, 874 open issues and last shipped yesterday. redoc has 25,998 stars, 2,406 forks, 449 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. Insomnia leads on adoption by 54% (40,111 vs 25,998 stars). Insomnia is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; redoc is written in TypeScript under MIT. Insomnia has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, redoc 9%. 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 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Insomnia | redoc | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 26K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-31 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 2.4K |
| 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 redoc if
- You want the redoc feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and redoc 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 redoc
Learn what's coming in Redoc 3.x → Generate beautiful API documentation from OpenAPI About Redoc Redoc is an open source tool for generating documentation from OpenAPI (formerly Swagger) definitions. By default Redoc offers a three panel, responsive layout: The left panel contains a search bar and navigation menu. The central panel contains the documentation. The right panel contains request and response examples. Live demo If you want to see how Redoc renders your OpenAPI definition, you can try it out online at A version of the Swagger Petstore API is displayed by default. To test it with your own OpenAPI…
read the full redoc 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 redoc more popular?
Insomnia has 40,111 GitHub stars and redoc has 25,998. Insomnia has the larger community by that measure.
Are Insomnia and redoc free?
Both are open source. Insomnia is licensed under Apache-2.0 and redoc under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Insomnia and redoc?
Insomnia is written in TypeScript and redoc 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 redoc?
Choose Insomnia if you want the larger community (40,111 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose redoc if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.