Insomnia vs Postman
Two of the top three API clients, compared rule by rule on published facts.
In short
- Insomnia has 85 points and Postman 78, 7 apart on our API clients rules.
- Insomnia earns more on your data; Postman earns more on systems and teams and trust.
- Cheapest paid plan: Insomnia $10/mo, Postman $9/mo.
- Only Insomnia meets: works without an account and open-source apps.
- Only Postman 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.
Postman78/100 #3 of 11
Best for: Teams that want shared workspaces, mock servers and published docs in one place.
Points by group
| Group | Insomnia | Postman |
|---|---|---|
| Systems of 10 | 8 | 10 |
| Requests and protocols of 33 | 30 | 30 |
| Your data of 22 | 22 | 8 |
| Teams and trust of 16 | 11 | 16 |
| Price of 19 | 14 | 14 |
| Total | 85 | 78 |
Rule by rule
What each vendor publishes, and the points it earns. Sources are on each product page.
| Rule (points) | Insomnia | Postman |
|---|---|---|
| Other systems (6) | macOS, Linux 4 | macOS, Linux, Web app 6 |
| 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 | Yes 3 |
| Publishes API docs (3) | Not published 0 | Yes 3 |
| Works without an account (8) | Yes 8 | Not published 0 |
| Collections as plain files (8) | Yes 8 | Yes 8 |
| Open-source apps (6) | Yes 6 | No 0 |
| Shared team workspaces (7) | Yes 7 | Yes 7 |
| 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 | $9/mo 4 |
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.
Postman
Postman suits teams that want shared cloud workspaces, mock servers and published docs behind one login. Solo at $9 a month and Free both include the CLI and mock servers. The catch: the app is closed source, Server-Sent Events are not listed as a request type, and single sign-on is an extra purchase on Team.
Both products are scored by the same rules: how we score API clients.