10 Best Insomnia API Client Alternatives in 2026

Insomnia is the desktop API client from Kong: a window where you compose REST, GraphQL and gRPC requests and read the response. This guide compares ten alternatives to that software, for developers who send HTTP requests for a living. Every price and limit came off the vendor's own page on 29 August 2026. Where a vendor publishes no number, this guide says so instead of guessing. You can also see how Qodex compares to other QA tools in one place.

Quick answer: choose by constraint

• Collections as files in your repo: Bruno or Yaak. Requests on disk, synced through Git.

• Open source in a browser, or on your own server: Hoppscotch. MIT, with a free self-host option.

• gRPC is your main protocol: Kreya. Local-first, with a headless CLI for CI.

• You live in VS Code: Thunder Client. An extension, not an app.

• You live in the terminal: HTTPie. The CLI is BSD 3-Clause and the core product.

• Shared workspaces for a team: Postman, or Testfully if you also want an offline workspace.

• Nobody has time to write the tests: Qodex. It writes and runs them, and it is not a request client.

• Staying put: Insomnia Essentials is $0, with Inso CLI and Git Sync for up to three users.

Two of those cost nothing and one starts at $1,299 a month. That gap is the point. "Insomnia alternative" hides two questions: a better window to compose requests in, or a way to stop composing them by hand.

What are you replacing?

Insomnia is five products on one invoice, and most people want to replace one of them. Name the piece first.

• A manual request client. Compose, send, read the response. Bruno, Yaak, Kreya, Thunder Client, HTTPie and Hoppscotch all do this.

• A shared workspace. Collections other people open without a Git checkout. Postman, Hoppscotch, Apidog, Testfully.

• An API design platform. Specs, docs and mock servers next to the requests. Apidog and Postman.

• A collection runner. The same requests on a schedule or in CI. That is Inso CLI, and every tool here except HTTPie and Yaak publishes an equivalent.

• An automated regression system. Something that writes the tests instead of running the ones you wrote. Different category. Qodex is the entry here.

Swapping the request composer is the easy half. Replacing Git Sync, Inso CLI and mock servers usually takes two products, and the free plan you land on may not include the part you depended on.

Insomnia alternatives at a glance

Ten API clients and platforms against Insomnia, prices checked 29 August 2026. "Not published" means the vendor's page states nothing, not that the feature is missing.

Why developers leave, and what Insomnia fixed

In September 2023, Insomnia 8.0 made account login the default path and moved local data toward cloud sync. The backlash was loud enough that Kong restored a local-only Scratch Pad and added local, Git, cloud and hybrid storage, which is why a generation of local-first clients exists.

Forced cloud storage is history, and the free tier is not a stub: Essentials costs $0 and includes Inso CLI. The current limits are further down, under when Insomnia is still the right choice.

The honest reasons to leave are narrower than the 2023 story. Git Sync stops at three users before you pay. There is no self-hosted Insomnia. The roadmap answers to Kong's enterprise buyers. And if a cloud default surprised you once, you may not want the option in the product at all.

The 10 best Insomnia alternatives

Grouped by what they replace. Local clients first, because that is where most people leaving Insomnia land.

1. Bruno

Bruno keeps every collection as plain text files in your repository, and there is no Bruno cloud at all.

• Category: desktop client, offline-first.

• License: MIT core.

• Price, 29 Aug 2026: Open Source $0, Pro $6, Ultimate $11 per user/month annual. Ultimate has a 14-day trial, no card.

• Free plan: HTTP, REST, GraphQL, gRPC, testing, scripting, code generation, unlimited collection runs, two workspaces.

• Data: your machine, no account.

• Git: plain text you branch, diff and merge like code.

• Insomnia import: accepted. Field list not published.

• Protocols: GraphQL and gRPC, both free.

• Runner: Bruno CLI, terminal and CI.

Best for: teams who want API changes reviewed in a pull request, next to the code they test.

Watch out for: sharing happens through Git and nothing else.

2. Yaak

Yaak is local by default, and it publishes the most detailed Insomnia migration path of any tool here.

• Category: desktop client, local by default.

• License: MIT source. The prebuilt binaries are free for personal use and need a license for work.

• Price, 29 Aug 2026: Individual $79 a year or $349 once. Business $149 per user a year. Commercial trial 30 days, no card, no signup.

• Free plan: personal use of the binaries.

• Data: local only. No account, no telemetry, secrets encrypted.

• Git: a plain-file directory with Git sync built in.

• Insomnia import: v4 and v5, carrying HTTP, gRPC and WebSocket requests, folders, environments, selected auth, bodies and templates.

• Protocols: GraphQL and gRPC.

• Runner: a CLI sends and edits requests. No CI product published.

Best for: an Insomnia user who wants the same working style with the data on disk.

Watch out for: using it at work means paying, and "selected auth" means some schemes fall outside the import.

3. Hoppscotch

Hoppscotch is the open-source client you can use in a browser tab or run on your own server.

• Category: browser client, cloud or self-hosted.

• License: MIT.

• Price, 29 Aug 2026: Cloud Free $0. Cloud Organization $6 per user/month billed annually.

• Free plan: unlimited workspaces, collections, requests and runners.

• Data: hosted, or on hardware you own. The free self-host option is linked from pricing.

• Git: Git-native collection files are not published.

• Insomnia import: yes, documented in the release notes.

• Protocols: GraphQL. Native gRPC is not published.

• Runner: Hoppscotch CLI, cloud or self-hosted collections, in CI/CD.

Best for: teams that want an open-source client inside their own network, and anyone who wants to send a request without installing anything.

Watch out for: self-hosted is not offline, fully offline use is not published, and there is no published gRPC.

4. Thunder Client

Thunder Client puts the client inside VS Code, where a lot of the work already happens.

• Category: VS Code extension.

• License: not published.

• Price, 29 Aug 2026: Free $0. Starter $3, Business $7, Enterprise $16 per user/month annual. A 14-day paid trial goes to business email addresses by request.

• Free plan: no numeric limit published. Paid runs are metered: Starter 250 local collection runs per user a month, Business 500, Enterprise unlimited. CI/CD runs are not capped.

• Data: collection data stays on your machine.

• Git: Git Sync is paid.

• Insomnia import: v4 or v5, on paid plans.

• Protocols: gRPC on paid plans. Native GraphQL is not stated on the page checked.

• Runner: CLI and CI/CD are paid.

Best for: VS Code users doing REST work who want one fewer window open.

Watch out for: the migration itself is a paid feature. Import, Git Sync and the CLI all sit behind Starter or higher.

5. HTTPie

HTTPie is a terminal HTTP client whose syntax documents itself: http POST api.example.com name=John.

• Category: command-line client, with desktop and web apps in public beta.

• License: the CLI is BSD 3-Clause. The apps are separate.

• Price, 29 Aug 2026: no paid price and no numeric free limit are published.

• Free plan: the CLI is open source. The desktop app is a public beta.

• Data: the desktop app works offline, without an account.

• Git: not published.

• Insomnia import: not published.

• Protocols: no GraphQL or gRPC mode published. A GraphQL query in a request body is not a GraphQL feature.

• Runner: the CLI is the product. No CI service published.

Best for: debugging by hand in a shell, and scripting one-off requests where a GUI slows you down.

Watch out for: the apps carry a beta label and no published price, so plan around the CLI.

6. Kreya

Kreya is the gRPC-led desktop client, and the only tool here whose runner publishes JUnit reports.

• Category: desktop client, local-first.

• License: not published.

• Price, 29 Aug 2026: Free is free forever. Pro and Enterprise exist, but the page checked published no numeric paid price. Paid plans have a 10-day trial.

• Free plan: free forever, with no numeric limits published.

• Data: your machine. Enterprise offers an offline license with no license server.

• Git: project data is structured JSON that diffs cleanly.

• Insomnia import: yes. Field list not published.

• Protocols: GraphQL and gRPC.

• Runner: headless CLI, Docker image, JUnit reports, CI/CD.

Best for: microservice teams whose primary protocol is gRPC and who want those calls running in CI.

Watch out for: you cannot budget from the website. Get the paid numbers first, and spend the 10-day trial on the CLI.

7. Apidog

Apidog is the broadest platform here: design, mocking, testing and a request client in one product, with the widest published protocol list.

• Category: API design, mocking and testing platform.

• License: not published.

• Price, 29 Aug 2026: Basic $9, Professional $18, Enterprise $27 per user/month annual, with a 14-day trial. Apidog's pricing URL returned nothing readable that day, so these come from its own product comparisons.

• Free plan: up to four users, with unlimited APIs, requests, projects and test runs.

• Data: a desktop Offline Space keeps selected projects local. Self-hosted runners and mock servers are published; self-hosting the application is not.

• Git: Git-native collection files are not published.

• Insomnia import: collections and environments, directly.

• Protocols: HTTP, GraphQL, gRPC, WebSocket, SSE and SOAP.

• Runner: Apidog CLI in Jenkins, GitLab CI and GitHub Actions, plus scheduled runs.

Best for: a team replacing more than the request window, where the spec, the mock server and the tests belong in one place.

Watch out for: the free plan stops at four users, a hard wall rather than a meter. Confirm the price in writing.

8. Testfully

Testfully treats an offline workspace as a first-class product rather than a fallback.

• Category: hosted client and testing platform, with offline workspaces.

• License: not published.

• Price, 29 Aug 2026: Developer $0. Team $14, Enterprise $29 per user/month billed annually. Paid plans have a 14-day trial by request.

• Free plan: one offline and one cloud workspace, up to five users each, unlimited collection-runner executions, all core features, and the CLI.

• Data: offline workspaces need no account and are described as air-gapped. Self-hosting the cloud service is not published.

• Git: Team adds Git integration for offline workspaces.

• Insomnia import: Collection v4 JSON, cloud and offline.

• Protocols: GraphQL. Current native gRPC support is not stated.

• Runner: Testfully CLI, in the free plan, either workspace, in CI.

Best for: a small team that wants shared workspaces without giving up a local one.

Watch out for: the importer takes v4, so export from Insomnia in that version. gRPC is the unpublished gap.

9. Postman

Postman is the tool many Insomnia users originally left. It belongs here honestly, and native Git on every plan is the reason why.

• Category: hosted API platform.

• License: no open-source platform license published.

• Price, 29 Aug 2026: Solo $9 a month annual, Team $19 and Enterprise $49 per user/month annual.

• Free plan: $0 for individuals: the client, specs, mock servers, native Git, collection-runner and performance-testing runs, 1,000 monitor requests and 50 AI credits a month.

• Data: cloud workspaces are the centre of the product. Not described as offline-first, and no self-hosted platform published. Enterprise private test runners are runners, not a self-hosted Postman.

• Git: native Git on every plan.

• Insomnia import: the importer accepts Insomnia data exports.

• Protocols: GraphQL and gRPC.

• Runner: Postman CLI on every plan, collections in CI.

Best for: teams that want one hosted place for specs, mocks, docs and tests, with almost every vendor's public collection a click away.

Watch out for: native Git narrows the gap with the local-first clients. It does not close it. Our Postman alternatives guide covers the escape routes, and Insomnia vs Postman compares the two directly.

10. Qodex

Qodex is an AI QA agent that writes and runs API, UI and security tests on every pull request, from your spec and your running app. It is not a request client, and there is no window here to replace Insomnia's.

• Category: automated API testing, not a manual client.

• License: not published.

• Price, 29 Aug 2026: Individual $0. Startup from $1,299 per project per month. Scale from $2,500 a month. See Qodex pricing.

• Free plan: one repository, 25 scenarios, 100 runs a month, one AI chat session, one run at a time.

• Data: offline or local-first use and self-hosting are not published.

• Git: no Git-native collection files. The trigger is the pull request, not a file in your repo.

• Insomnia import: not published. It takes OpenAPI, Postman collections, spreadsheets and existing tests, so export to one of those first.

• Protocols: HTTP and GraphQL scenario runs. Native gRPC testing is not published.

• Runner: Startup adds CI/CD integrations plus scheduled and webhook-triggered runs. No standalone API-client CLI.

Best for: teams whose problem is that nobody writes the tests, rather than that the request window is wrong. See API testing, or start free against staging.

Watch out for: $0 to $1,299 is a steep step, and you still want a client for poking at an endpoint by hand.

Free and open source are not the same thing

Four arrangements get called free on this page, and they give you four different sets of rights.

Open-source software. Bruno's core is MIT, Hoppscotch is MIT, the HTTPie CLI is BSD 3-Clause, and the Insomnia desktop client itself is Apache 2.0. The license sits on the source, not on a plan.

Open source with a paid binary. Yaak only. The source is MIT, the binaries are free for personal use, and commercial use costs $79 a year, $349 once, or $149 per user a year for Business.

Proprietary products with a free plan. Postman ($0 for individuals), Thunder Client ($0, no numeric limit published), Testfully Developer ($0, one offline and one cloud workspace), Apidog (free up to four users), Kreya (free forever), Qodex Individual ($0, 25 scenarios and 100 runs a month), Insomnia Essentials ($0, Git Sync for three users, Inso CLI).

Trials with a clock. Yaak's commercial trial runs 30 days, no card. Bruno Ultimate, Apidog, Testfully and Thunder Client run 14 days, the last two by request. Kreya runs 10.

An Apache 2.0 license on the Insomnia client did not prevent the 2023 storage change, and MIT on Yaak's source does not make the binary free at work. Read the license for what you may run, the plan for what you get.

Local-first, Git-native and self-hosted, defined once

These three get used as if they mean one thing. They are separate controls, and a tool can have one without the others.

Local-first: the data sits on your machine and the app works without an account. Yaak, Bruno, Kreya and Insomnia's Scratch Pad qualify. So do Thunder Client's collections, Testfully's offline workspaces and HTTPie's desktop app.

Git-native: the collections are files you can diff and review. Bruno stores plain text, Yaak a plain-file directory with Git sync, Kreya structured JSON. Insomnia's Git Sync is free for three users, Postman lists native Git on every plan, and Thunder Client's and Testfully's are paid. Hoppscotch and Apidog publish no Git-native files.

Self-hosted: you run the server. Only Hoppscotch publishes a free self-host option for the whole application. Apidog publishes self-hosted runners and mock servers, a component rather than the platform. Nobody else here publishes self-hosting, Insomnia included, and Bruno, Yaak and Kreya have no server to host.

Hoppscotch shows why this matters: you can run it on your own hardware and it is still a web app, and fully offline use is not published.

Migrating from Insomnia

Export first, then check what arrived. Only one vendor publishes the field list its importer carries, so the rest is verification you do yourself.

1. Export, and note the version. Testfully takes v4. Yaak and Thunder Client take v4 or v5.

2. Import into a scratch workspace. Not over anything you rely on, and keep Insomnia installed until the end.

3. Validate environments and variables. Compare values against the original, not just names. Outside Yaak, no vendor publishes what its importer keeps.

4. Repair auth and scripts. Yaak carries selected auth, so some schemes fall outside it. Nobody publishes what happens to pre-request scripts, so plan to rewrite them.

5. Smoke-test one request per protocol. If you use gRPC this is the step that matters: Hoppscotch, Testfully, HTTPie and Qodex publish none, and Thunder Client's is paid.

6. Wire the runner into CI before you cancel anything. Inso CLI is the piece teams forget they depend on.

Choose by protocol and runner

When Insomnia is still the right choice

• Essentials is $0, with unlimited local and cloud projects, unlimited collection runs, Inso CLI, 1,000 mock-server requests a month, and Git Sync for up to three users.

• Storage can be local, Git, cloud or hybrid, Scratch Pad is local-only and free forever, and Enterprise can mandate the mode.

• Native GraphQL and gRPC are both included, which is more than half this list can say. The client is Apache 2.0.

• Pro is $12 and Enterprise $45 per user per month, annual, where the storage policy controls live.

Leave when a specific line breaks. A fourth person needs Git Sync. You need self-hosting, which Insomnia does not publish. Policy rules out a Kong-hosted service. Or the real problem was never the client, and no amount of window-shopping writes the regression suite for you.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best free alternative to Insomnia?

Bruno, if you want collections as plain files in Git: MIT, $0, two workspaces, unlimited collection runs, GraphQL and gRPC included. Hoppscotch, if you want a browser client or a free self-hosted deployment, with unlimited workspaces, collections, requests and runners. Both are open source rather than free tiers of a paid product.

What happened with Insomnia and forced accounts?

Insomnia 8.0, in September 2023, made account login the default path and pushed local data toward cloud sync. The reaction was severe enough that Kong restored a local-only Scratch Pad and added local, Git, cloud and hybrid storage. That is the current product, and Essentials still includes Git Sync for up to three users. People shop around because the option existed at all.

Can I import my Insomnia collections into other tools?

Bruno, Yaak, Hoppscotch, Postman, Kreya, Apidog, Testfully and Thunder Client all publish Insomnia import. Yaak takes v4 and v5, Thunder Client v4 or v5 on paid plans, and Testfully Collection v4 JSON. HTTPie publishes no import path. Qodex has no direct Insomnia import, so export to OpenAPI or a Postman collection first.

Who makes Yaak, and how is it related to Insomnia?

Yaak is built by Gregory Schier, who created Insomnia before Kong acquired it. It is local by default with no account and no telemetry, and sync happens through a plain-file directory in Git. Its Insomnia importer is the most specific one published: v4 and v5, carrying requests, folders, environments, selected auth, bodies and templates.

Which Insomnia alternative is best for gRPC?

Kreya. It is local-first, gRPC is the protocol it leads with, and its headless CLI produces JUnit reports for CI. Bruno includes gRPC in the free tier, and Yaak, Apidog and Postman all publish it. Thunder Client's is paid. Hoppscotch, Testfully, HTTPie and Qodex publish no native gRPC.

Is Insomnia still open source?

The desktop client is Apache 2.0. The commercial layer is the plans: Essentials at $0, Pro at $12 and Enterprise at $45 per user per month annual, where storage policy and admin controls live. Self-hosting the platform is not published, so open source here means you can read and run the client, not host the service.

Which alternatives work fully offline?

Yaak is local by default with no account. Bruno is offline-first. Kreya is local-first, and Enterprise adds an offline license with no license server. Testfully's offline workspaces need no account and are described as air-gapped. Thunder Client keeps collection data on the machine, HTTPie's desktop app works offline, and Apidog's Offline Space covers selected projects. Hoppscotch, Postman and Qodex do not publish fully offline use.

Which alternatives store collections as Git-readable files?

Bruno writes plain text files you can branch, diff and merge. Yaak uses a plain-file directory with Git sync built in. Kreya stores structured JSON that diffs cleanly. Insomnia's own Git Sync is free for up to three users, and Postman lists native Git on every plan. Thunder Client's Git Sync and Testfully's Git integration are paid. Hoppscotch and Apidog publish none.

What survives an Insomnia import?

Only Yaak publishes the answer: HTTP, gRPC and WebSocket requests, folders, environments, selected auth, bodies and templates, from v4 and v5 exports. Apidog names collections and environments. Everyone else says the import works without listing the fields. Check environments and auth by hand afterwards, and expect to rewrite pre-request scripts.

Which alternatives run in CI?

Bruno CLI, Hoppscotch CLI, Postman CLI, Testfully CLI, Apidog CLI and Kreya's headless CLI all run collections in CI, and Kreya adds a Docker image and JUnit reports. Insomnia's own Inso CLI is in the free Essentials plan. Thunder Client's CLI is paid, and its CI/CD runs are not capped. Qodex runs on CI/CD integrations plus scheduled and webhook triggers, on Startup.