LOlostmsu·May 17, 2025
I am using Insomnia: https://github.com/Kong/insomnia
In Postman is logging all your secrets and environment variablesKong
insomnia
TypeScript2017–2025
Kong / insomnia
insomnia
The open-source, cross-platform API client for GraphQL, REST, WebSockets, SSE and gRPC. With Cloud, Local and Git storage.
49Distinct people
56Mentions
1Explicit recommenders
40.1KGitHub stars
What to know before exploring
What it is
The open-source, cross-platform API client for GraphQL, REST, WebSockets, SSE and gRPC. With Cloud, Local and Git storage.
GitHub
Where it is used
No documented product use was verified in the last source check.
What people are saying
insomnia was my favorite http client until it started deleting entire projects: https://github.com/Kong/insomnia/issues/5167
patrikcsak used a recommendation phrase. One indexed comment matches. This is a phrase match, not a verdict.
No classified warning is attached to this page. Read the discussions before treating silence as approval.
Also in these discussions
- usebruno/bruno · linked in 4 of the same discussions
- flawiddsouza/restfox · linked in 3 of the same discussions
Mentioned in the same Hacker News threads. That is not proof they are substitutes.
This week on Hacker News
Nov 7–Nov 14 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/14/2026, 3:56:07 PM UTC.
No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.
Mentions over time
HN mentions by year56 dated mentions
Observed mentions: 2017-05-11 16:40:28 UTC to 2025-05-17 22:50:24 UTC.
Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.
View mention counts and date ranges
| Period | Start (UTC) | End (exclusive, UTC) | Mentions | Submissions | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 7 | 0 | 7 |
| 2018 | 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 2019 | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 2020 | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 4 | 0 | 4 |
| 2021 | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 2022 | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 6 | 0 | 6 |
| 2023 | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 28 | 11 | 17 |
| 2024 | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| 2025 | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 3 | 0 | 3 |
What Hacker News says
56 sourcesThey explicitly sold themselves as an Insomnia alt.
Here is their usage graph: https://star-history.com/#usebruno/bruno&Date
Insomnia introduced account shenanigans around the end of Sept 23: https://github.com/Kong/insomnia/discussions/6590
In Hoppscotch: Open source alternative to Postman / InsomniaYeah, but they went the cloud-first enshittification route like a year and a half ago.
https://github.com/Kong/insomnia/issues/6577
I still use Insomnium, a (dead) fork of Insomnia that removed all the telemetry on a version of Insomnia just before this nonsense occurred.
In Hoppscotch: Open source alternative to Postman / InsomniaYeah, never understood the charm of it either.
My favorite is Bruno (https://github.com/usebruno/bruno), one can even commit its text-based files to version control.
Insomnia is probably better but had a major fiasco last year - https://github.com/Kong/insomnia/issues/6577
In The Indian startup bubble is insaneInsomnia REST client updated to require signup to use
32 points · Open discussionThere was some discussion and links on https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37708582 recently - tldr, Insomnia now requires a cloud account and can’t run purely locally.
See also https://github.com/Kong/insomnia/issues/6606
In HTTPie Desktop: cross-platform API testing client for humansWeird. Mine doesn't, and it's been 8 days since that post. I even checked for updates, and I'm up to date. Maybe they reverted their bone head move? (I don't use it daily)
EDIT: Maybe they did. See last comment here: https://github.com/Kong/insomnia/discussions/6590
In Tell HN: Postman update removes all your stuff if you refuse to create accountLocal-only projects are coming back in mid October (Insomnia v8.3)
1 points · Open discussionLocal-only projects are coming back in mid October (Insomnia v8.3) #6626
2 points · Open discussionLocal-only projects are coming back in mid October (Insomnia v8.3)
5 points · Open discussionperhaps more heartbreaking is a tweet from the original creator of Insomnia[1] (who sold it to Kong some years ago) which reminds me of the time a year ago when Insomnia forced the GitHub stars count to be prominently placed in the product, but explicitly without any way to disable it[2]. It was later disabled but just for paying users..
You can see the CTO arguing with people in that thread about it.
1: https://twitter.com/GregorySchier/status/1707472402454835593
2: https://github.com/Kong/insomnia/issues/5056#issuecomment-12...
In Insomnium – Local, privacy-focused fork of Insomnia API clientHey everyone.. wish we were here discussing something more positive. however...
I happen to know that the Kong CTO is extremely obsessed with GitHub stars and vanity metrics so he can impress investors (e.g. check out his twitter to see him bragging about star counts).
The best thing you can do to get Kong's attention on how horribly they have handled this situation is...
unstar https://github.com/kong/insomnia
...and tell everyone you know to do the same...
It's so so sad that it's come to this but if you haven't seen any of the CTO's responses to users... you're in for a ride. See the thread that dang posted here. The CTO's own words make it quite clear that he sees the Insomnia community as pests getting in the way of his IPO.
It should be crystal clear to everyone paying attention that the leadership at Kong doesn't have a whole lo
Read the rest
t of respect for their user's private data. I was hoping they'd take a moment to reflect after the extreme backlash but instead they've just been arguing with users nonstop while some of us are sitting here filling out compliance reports on the accidentally exfiltrated data.
Here is the main Github issue with a lot of context: https://github.com/Kong/insomnia/issues/6577
It was later turned into a discussion here: https://github.com/Kong/insomnia/discussions/6590
However, the discussion was closed so newer issues have been created.
In Insomnium – Local, privacy-focused fork of Insomnia API clientinsomnia was my favorite http client until it started deleting entire projects: https://github.com/Kong/insomnia/issues/5167
In Insomnium – Local, privacy-focused fork of Insomnia API clientShowing the 15 most recent of 56 sources. Enable JavaScript to search and browse every indexed mention.