head to head · open source
Insomnia vs Tailcall
Insomnia has 40,023 GitHub stars, 2,367 forks, 874 open issues and last shipped today. Tailcall has 7,637 stars, 1,467 forks, 45 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Insomnia leads on adoption by 424% (40,023 vs 7,637 stars). Insomnia is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; Tailcall is written in Rust under Apache-2.0. Insomnia has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, Tailcall 19%. 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.
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Side by side
| Insomnia | Tailcall | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 7.6K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-09-19 |
| 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 Tailcall if
- You want the Tailcall feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and Tailcall 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 Tailcall
Tailcall is an Apache 2.0 licensed, Rust based developer tool listed in this registry whose repository (tailcallhq/forgecode) and README present it as Forge, an AI enhanced terminal development environment: a command line coding agent that works against Claude, GPT, O Series, Grok, Deepseek, Gemini and, per its own description, more than 300 other models.
read the full Tailcall overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Insomnia or Tailcall more popular?
Insomnia has 40,023 GitHub stars and Tailcall has 7,637. Insomnia has the larger community by that measure.
Are Insomnia and Tailcall free?
Both are open source. Insomnia is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Tailcall under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Insomnia and Tailcall?
Insomnia is written in TypeScript and Tailcall in Rust. 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 Tailcall?
Choose Insomnia if you want the larger community (40,023 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Tailcall if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.