HTTPie vs Insomnia

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

HTTPie

BSD-3-Clause license

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

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

	HTTPie	Insomnia
License	BSD-3-Clause license	Apache-2.0
Self-hostable	Yes	No
GitHub Stars	38,577	40,033
Forks	4,009	2,370
Open Issues	337	896
Last Commit	Dec 17, 2024	Sep 24, 2026
First Released	Feb 25, 2012	Apr 23, 2016
Categories	API Development & Testing Tools	API Development & Testing Tools
Tags	#API #api client #http client	#API #rest #http client #api client

GitHub stars over time

HTTPie38,577

Insomnia

Similar open source alternatives

Hoppscotch

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

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

Bruno

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

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