Bruno vs Insomnia

Comparing two open source alternatives to Postman and Thunder Client and Stoplight and Paw and Apidog and ReadyAPI and SwaggerHub . Use the comparison below to decide which one fits your needs.

Bruno

MIT

Opensource IDE For Exploring and Testing API's (lightweight alternative to Postman/Insomnia)

Visit Full details

Insomnia

Apache-2.0

The open-source, cross-platform API client for GraphQL, REST, WebSockets, SSE and gRPC. With Cloud, Local and Git storage.

Visit Full details

Side-by-side comparison

	Bruno	Insomnia
License	MIT	Apache-2.0
Self-hostable	No	No
GitHub Stars	46,250	39,934
Forks	2,767	2,359
Open Issues	1,790	877
Last Commit	Aug 10, 2026	Aug 10, 2026
First Released	Sep 27, 2022	Apr 23, 2016
Categories	API Development & Testing Tools	API Development & Testing Tools
Tags	#API #rest #http client #api client #openapi	#API #rest #http client #api client

Similar open source alternatives

Hoppscotch

Open source API development ecosystem - https://hoppscotch.io (open-source alternative to Postman, Insomnia)

Alternative to:

Postman

HTTPie

Open-source command-line and desktop HTTP client with intuitive syntax, JSON support, and built-in auth — a developer-friendly Postman alternative.

Alternative to:

Postman

Scalar

Scalar is an open-source API platform:　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　🌐 Modern Rest API Client　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　📖 Beautiful API References　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　✨ 1st-Class OpenAPI/Swagger Support

Alternative to:

Postman

Hurl

Run and test HTTP requests with plain text — a simple yet powerful command-line tool for API testing.

Alternative to:

Postman

Yaak

The most intuitive desktop API client. Organize and execute REST, GraphQL, WebSockets, Server Sent Events, and gRPC 🦬

Alternative to:

Postman

Voiden

Design, test and document APIs in plain Markdown with a git-native, offline-first approach.

Alternative to:

Postman