What is the main difference between Insomnia and Requestly?

Insomnia and Requestly are both api clients but differ in their approach, features, and target audience. Compare their GitHub stats, technology stack, and community adoption to make the best choice.

Which is better: Insomnia or Requestly?

The choice between Insomnia and Requestly depends on your specific needs, technical requirements, and team preferences. Both are quality open source solutions with active communities.

Can I migrate from Insomnia to Requestly?

Migration between Insomnia and Requestly is possible but requires careful planning. Consider data export/import capabilities, feature parity, and potential workflow changes.

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Insomnia vs Requestly

Learn how Insomnia and Requestly differ in their key features, development activity, technology stack and community adoption, so you can decide which of these api clients is best for you.

Insomnia

Intuitive API client for REST, GraphQL, and gRPC. Debug, test, and collaborate on APIs with ease across platforms.

Visit Insomnia Read more

39,956stars+59(+0.1%)

Last 30 days

Last commit
10 hours ago
Repository age
10 years
Version
13.1.0
License
Apache-2.0
Repository
kong/insomnia

Requestly

A powerful browser extension and desktop app for developers to manipulate network requests, debug APIs, and improve web app testing

Visit Requestly Read more

6,750stars+10(+0.1%)

Last 30 days

Last commit
15 hours ago
Repository age
10 years
Version
2026.03.23
License
AGPL-3.0
Self-hosted
Yes
Repository
requestly/requestly

Detailed Comparison

Both Insomnia and Requestly have their unique strengths and serve similar purposes effectively. Consider your specific needs regarding popularity, growth, activity, technology, maturity, licensing and features when making your decision.

Insomnia wins

Community & Popularity

Insomnia significantly outpaces Requestly in community adoption with 39,956 stars compared to 6,750 stars on GitHub. This 5.9x difference suggests Insomnia has a much larger and more active community. In terms of developer contributions, Insomnia has 2,360 forks, indicating strong developer engagement.

Comparable

Growth Momentum

Insomnia and Requestly are moving at much the same rate, adding 59 stars and adding 10 stars respectively over the last 30 days (+0.1% vs +0.1%). Neither is pulling away from the other on momentum alone.

Comparable

Development Activity

Both projects show recent activity, with Insomnia last updated 10 hours ago and Requestly 15 hours ago.

Comparable

Technology Stack

Both tools share common technology foundations, being built with JavaScript, CSS, Bash, Typescript, JSX. However, they differ in their additional technology choices: Insomnia uses C, Objective-C, C++ while Requestly leverages SCSS.

Comparable

Project Maturity

Both projects started around the same time, with Insomnia beginning 10 years ago and Requestly 10 years ago.

Comparable

Licensing

The projects use different licenses: Insomnia is licensed under Apache-2.0 while Requestly uses AGPL-3.0. Consider the licensing requirements when choosing for your project.

Comparable

Use Cases & Features

Both tools serve similar use cases in API Clients. However, they also have distinct specializations: Requestly extends into Browser Extensions.

Requestly wins

Hosting & Deployment

Requestly provides self-hosting options for complete data control and customization, while Insomnia may be primarily cloud-based or require different deployment approaches.