Insomnia vs Bruno
Two of the top three API clients, compared rule by rule on published facts.
In short
- Insomnia has 85 points and Bruno 82, 3 apart on our API clients rules.
- Insomnia earns more on requests and protocols and teams and trust; Bruno earns more on price.
- Cheapest paid plan: Insomnia $10/mo, Bruno $6/mo.
- Only Insomnia meets: mock servers and shared team workspaces.
- Only Bruno meets: publishes API docs and SOC 2 Type II or ISO 27001.
Insomnia85/100 #1 of 11
Best for: People who want an open-source client with GraphQL, gRPC, WebSocket and SSE screens.
Bruno82/100 #2 of 11
Best for: Developers who want collections in their own repository and no account.
Points by group
| Group | Insomnia | Bruno |
|---|---|---|
| Systems of 10 | 8 | 8 |
| Requests and protocols of 33 | 30 | 27 |
| Your data of 22 | 22 | 22 |
| Teams and trust of 16 | 11 | 9 |
| Price of 19 | 14 | 16 |
| Total | 85 | 82 |
Rule by rule
What each vendor publishes, and the points it earns. Sources are on each product page.
| Rule (points) | Insomnia | Bruno |
|---|---|---|
| Other systems (6) | macOS, Linux 4 | macOS, Linux 4 |
| Command-line runner (4) | Yes 4 | Yes 4 |
| Built-in protocols (12) | GraphQL, gRPC, WebSocket, Server-Sent Events 12 | GraphQL, gRPC, WebSocket 9 |
| Imports OpenAPI (4) | Yes 4 | Yes 4 |
| Scripts and tests (8) | Yes 8 | Yes 8 |
| Collection runner (3) | Yes 3 | Yes 3 |
| Mock servers (3) | Yes 3 | No 0 |
| Publishes API docs (3) | Not published 0 | Yes 3 |
| Works without an account (8) | Yes 8 | Yes 8 |
| Collections as plain files (8) | Yes 8 | Yes 8 |
| Open-source apps (6) | Yes 6 | Yes 6 |
| Shared team workspaces (7) | Yes 7 | No 0 |
| SAML or OIDC single sign-on (4) | Yes 4 | Yes 4 |
| SOC 2 Type II or ISO 27001 (5) | Not published 0 | Yes 5 |
| Free plan (10) | Yes 10 | Yes 10 |
| Cheapest paid plan (9) | $10/mo 4 | $6/mo 6 |
Insomnia
Insomnia suits people who want an open-source client that can run without an account and keep projects as YAML files in Git. Pro at $10 per user a month, billed annually, adds Git Sync for every user and larger mock limits. The catch: Git Sync is free for only 3 users, there is no web app, and the pricing page names SOC2 without saying Type II.
Bruno
Bruno suits developers who want an open-source client with no account, plain-file collections and a CLI that runs in CI. Pro costs $6 per user a month, billed yearly. The catch: there is no cloud sync, no web app is listed, mock servers are still in beta, and Server-Sent Events work through a plain HTTP request rather than their own request type.
Both products are scored by the same rules: how we score API clients.