Insomnia API client alternatives: where to go and how to get there
Six destinations, one per reason for leaving, and a seven-step move that protects your tokens.
The short answer. Pick Bruno if you never want an account or a cloud again. Pick Yaak if you miss the original Insomnia: it comes from the person who built it. Pick Hoppscotch for a browser client you can also self-host. Pick Thunder Client if you live in VS Code. Pick Apidog if a team of four wants a full platform for free. Pick Postman only if a login and cloud sync don't bother you. We compared all six on their official pricing, the Insomnia export format each one really reads, and what gets lost on the way.
Some links may be affiliate links. The ranking is editorial: a sponsored spot is always labeled on its card, and no affiliate link changes a score.
Why developers leave Insomnia
For years, Insomnia was the client people recommended to anyone escaping Postman. It is still open source under Apache-2.0, and it still works well for many. But version 8 left scars. These six reasons come straight from Kong's GitHub issues, its forum, and Hacker News threads.
A login showed up overnight
Version 8, released in 2023, asked people to sign in to see their projects. Plenty of users opened the app after an update and found nothing. On GitHub, one developer put it bluntly: "The whole reason I used Insomnia was because it wasn't trying to push to create an account." Another one, in a separate issue, wrote: "I lost all of my work after upgrading to version 8. Guess I'll find something else to use."
Your data was hidden behind sync
The same issue explains the trap: "It only shows your stuff if you switch on sync, thus forcing you to create an account." Kong's reply at the time was that the Scratch Pad holds a single collection, always local. If you had twenty, that wasn't much comfort. The thread was locked afterwards.
Going local deletes the cloud copy
Version 8.3 brought back fully local storage, called Local Vault. Fair enough. Kong's own release post also states that when a project is created locally or converted to local-only, all its data in the cloud is permanently deleted. People who felt synced against their will did not love that sentence.
No servers, no app
Outside the Scratch Pad, login depends on Kong's backend. During an outage, users were stuck. A GitHub discussion sums it up: "Your downtime yesterday proved why forcing users to use a account is not good." Kong answered there that a session stays valid for 30 days from the last time it was recognized. After that, you sign in again.
A small tool turned into a platform
API design, mock servers, Kong integration. Useful for some, extra weight if you just send requests and read responses. Insomnia's own creator, who sold it in 2019, said in his Show HN post that he watched it expand into the broader feature set of Postman. That is why he started over.
Free stops at three people
The Essentials plan is $0 with unlimited cloud and local projects. Git Sync, though, is free for up to 3 users only. The fourth person pushes you to Pro at $12 per user per month, billed yearly. A team of 5 pays $60 a month, or $720 a year. Free mocks also cap at 1,000 requests a month, then Pro raises that to 10,000.
You're leaving because… go to…
One honest check first. If the login was your only issue, Insomnia now runs fully local with the Scratch Pad or Local Vault, and staying is a real option. If not, one of these rows is yours.
Offline by design, collections in a folder.
You miss the early InsomniaYaakBuilt by Insomnia's creator, data on your machine.
You want a browser tab, not an installHoppscotchWeb app, or free self-hosting.
You spend your day in VS CodeThunder ClientThe only one documenting v5 import.
Your team of four won't payApidogFree for up to 4 users.
You want what everyone already knowsPostmanMost complete, account required.
Insomnia alternatives, tool by tool
For each one: why move there, who it fits, where it falls short, how to bring your Insomnia export over, and what it costs. Prices come from each vendor's official page in 2026, in US dollars, before tax.
Bruno: no server, no sync, no account
Safest for your dataWhy Bruno. It answers the Insomnia complaint head on. Its README says: "Bruno is offline-only." Then: "There are no plans to add cloud-sync to Bruno, ever." Collections sit in a folder on your filesystem. Drop that folder in your API repo and request changes go through the same pull request as the code. The core is MIT-licensed.
Who it fits. Developers who got burned by the version 8 login, and companies that won't let API calls pass through a third party.
Who should skip it. Teams where product managers browse requests but never touch Git. Sharing in Bruno means sharing a repo.
Where it falls short. The free edition gives you 2 workspaces and public Git providers; private hosted repos need a paid plan. Scripts are the real cost of moving. Bruno's own guide warns that custom scripts may need manual review or rewrite, and a GitHub issue reports insomnia.test and insomnia.expect calls missing after import.
How to move. Export from Insomnia as YAML or HAR, then Import collection in Bruno. Pick a destination folder and a format (OpenCollection YAML or .bru files). You can import a whole workspace export and select several collections at once. Afterwards, check folder order, and note that a "/" in a name becomes a "-". For CI, Bruno ships a command-line tool.
Price. Free and open source. Pro at $6 per user per month, Ultimate at $11, billed yearly. Ultimate comes with a 14-day trial, no card needed.
- Free
- open source, 2 workspaces
- Paid
- Pro $6/user/month
- Best for
- Git teams, no cloud
- Limit
- insomnia.* scripts need rewriting
Yaak: a fresh start from Insomnia's creator
Closest to the originalWhy Yaak. The vendor page says it plainly: "I created Insomnia in 2014 and sold it in 2019." Yaak goes back to a fast client built around sending requests. Requests, environments and response history live on your computer, with no hosted Yaak workspace backend. You can also sync everything as plain text into a local folder and track it with Git. The code is MIT-licensed.
Who it fits. Solo developers and small teams who liked Insomnia before version 8 and want something light again.
Who should skip it. Teams that need hosted mocks, published docs or a shared online workspace. Yaak doesn't host one.
Where it falls short. The license model catches people off guard: Yaak is free for personal use, but "A license is only required when using Yaak at work." Billing is yearly only, and one license covers 3 devices. The import page lists "Insomnia v4+" without naming the v5 YAML format, so run one collection through it before moving everything.
How to move. Import your Insomnia export, then check authentication and template values, as Yaak itself recommends. It also reads Postman v2 and v2.1 collections, Bruno exports (folder, ZIP or YAML), OpenAPI 3.0 and 3.1, Swagger 2.0 and cURL. Handy when your team has already scattered across tools.
Price. Free for personal use. Individual at $79 a year or $399 once, Business at $149 per user per year. 30-day trial with no card and no sign-up, refunds within 30 days, and a perpetual fallback license.
- Free
- personal use
- Paid
- $79/year or $399 once
- Best for
- solo devs, local data
- Limit
- paid license for work use
Hoppscotch: a browser tab or your own server
Nothing to installWhy Hoppscotch. Open a web page, send a request. If you want your data at home, the Community Edition self-hosts for free under MIT, for personal and commercial projects. It is the only option here that is both "nothing to install" and "everything on my infrastructure".
Who it fits. Teams with a server and someone to maintain it, and developers who hop between machines.
Who should skip it. Teams whose collections lean on test scripts. Those don't come across.
Where it falls short. The Insomnia importer is partial. Hoppscotch's docs say scripts, tests and advanced authorization methods aren't synced; regular environment variables are imported. Files are capped at 10 MB in the cloud and 50 MB self-hosted. Self-hosted admin login runs through Google, GitHub or Microsoft OAuth.
How to move. Hoppscotch expects an Insomnia export in JSON. Insomnia now exports v5 YAML and no longer writes v4 JSON. Check the format before you start, keep a HAR export as a backup, and plan to rewrite scripts by hand.
Price. Free at $0, forever (personal workspace, collections, environments, scripts, runner). Business at $6 per user per month, billed yearly, for team workspaces, mocks and docs. Enterprise at $11 adds SSO, SCIM and audit logs.
- Free
- Free plan or self-hosted
- Paid
- Business $6/user/month
- Best for
- browser, own server
- Limit
- scripts and tests not imported
Thunder Client: stay inside VS Code
Easiest importWhy Thunder Client. It is a VS Code extension, so requests open next to your code. Data stays on your machine. And it is the only tool here whose docs explicitly read Insomnia exports in "Insomnia v4 or v5 format", collections and environments included. Since Insomnia now writes v5 YAML, that detail saves you an afternoon.
Who it fits. Developers who live in VS Code and mostly fire off requests while coding.
Who should skip it. Teams on other editors, or QA folks who never open VS Code.
Where it falls short. The free plan is tight: 3 collections, 50 requests per collection, 5 imports a month and 30 local collection runs per user per month. With only 5 imports, merge your collections into one file before you start.
How to move. Export from Insomnia, import the file in Thunder Client. Collections and environments come along. For pipelines, the pricing page notes: "There is no limit for collection runs in CI/CD."
Price. Free with the limits above. Starter at $3 a month billed yearly, for 1 user, with Git Sync. Business at $7 and Enterprise at $16.
- Free
- 3 collections, 5 imports/month
- Paid
- Starter $3/month
- Best for
- daily VS Code users
- Limit
- tight free tier
Apidog: a free platform for a team of four
Free up to 4Why Apidog. If the 3-user cap on Insomnia's free Git Sync is what hurts, Apidog's pricing page says "Up to 4 users" on its free plan. API design, testing and docs sit in one place.
Who it fits. A four-person team that wants a full platform on zero budget and is fine working in an online tool.
Who should skip it. Anyone leaving Insomnia to get away from accounts and platforms. Apidog is a platform, and a bigger one. Also keep in mind that the vendor writes many of the "Insomnia alternatives" articles you'll find in search.
Where it falls short. User number five means a paid plan. And, as with Postman, you need an account to use it.
How to move. Export from Insomnia as "Insomnia (latest version)" or HAR. In Apidog, go to Settings, then Import Data. Choose the BaseURL "Remove" option so base URLs live in environments instead of every request. Generating test cases on import is optional.
Price. Free for up to 4 users. Basic at $9 per user per month.
- Free
- up to 4 users
- Paid
- Basic $9/user/month
- Best for
- team of 4, all-in-one
- Limit
- online, heavier platform
Postman: the most complete, if you accept the login
Most widely usedWhy Postman. It is the client your coworkers, clients and API docs already assume. Insomnia import is built in, and the desktop app can even detect your Insomnia data folder on its own.
Who it fits. Teams that want the default tool and have no problem with an account and cloud sync.
Who should skip it. You, if the login is why you're leaving. Postman also requires an account and keeps collections in its cloud, and its offline Scratch Pad is gone. It isn't an escape, just the same issue at a higher price.
Where it falls short. The free plan includes 1 user. Team, the first plan for more people, costs $19 per user per month billed yearly: $95 a month for 5 people, versus $60 on Insomnia Pro. Those are annual-billing prices; Postman also offers a pay-monthly option.
How to move. In Postman: Import, then Migrate to Postman, then Other. Auto-detection of the Insomnia folder only exists in the desktop app. If the Start Migration button stays disabled, the file isn't a valid Insomnia export, so export again.
Price. Free at $0 for 1 user, Solo at $9 a month, Team at $19 per user per month, billed yearly. Enterprise on quote.
- Free
- 1 user
- Paid
- Team $19/user/month
- Best for
- teams already on Postman
- Limit
- account and cloud required
The 6 alternatives compared
Our default pick: Bruno if you are leaving to own your data again, Yaak if you mostly want a light client back. For a team of 5 developers billed yearly, the monthly bill looks like this: Postman Team $95, Insomnia Pro $60, Apidog Basic $45, Thunder Client Business $35, Bruno Pro and Hoppscotch Business $30 each. Yaak Business comes to $745 a year. Left column: the free plan. Right column: first paid price and the Insomnia format each one expects.
| Free plan | First paid plan and Insomnia import | |
|---|---|---|
| InsomniaWhere you start | Unlimited projects, Git Sync for up to 3 users, 1,000 mock requests a month | Pro $12 per user per month; exports v5 YAML or HAR |
| BrunoOffline | Open source, 2 workspaces, public Git | Pro $6 per user per month; imports YAML or HAR |
| YaakLightest | Free for personal use | $79 a year (Individual); lists "Insomnia v4+" |
| HoppscotchBrowser | Personal workspace, scripts, runner, free self-hosting | Business $6 per user per month; JSON import, no scripts or tests |
| Thunder ClientVS Code | 3 collections of 50 requests, 5 imports a month | Starter $3 a month; v4 or v5 import |
| ApidogPlatform | Up to 4 users | Basic $9 per user per month; "latest version" or HAR import |
| PostmanAccount required | 1 user | Solo $9 a month, Team $19 per user per month; built-in migration |
Vendors' public prices in 2026, in US dollars, before tax, billed yearly where the vendor offers it. Yaak is paid yearly or once.
Move off Insomnia in seven steps
Most of the data loss stories on GitHub happened during an update, not during a migration. So this plan starts by getting your data somewhere safe.
Export everything before you change anything
FirstGo to Preferences, then Data, and click Export all data. Do it before any update, before trying a fork, before creating an account. One user on a community forum warns that installing Insomnium (an account-free fork, now discontinued) can overwrite your Insomnia data. Keep the file out of your repo.
- Where
- Preferences > Data
- Time
- a few minutes
Pick the export format your destination reads
Day 1Insomnia now exports in the v5 format (YAML) and as HAR. It can still import legacy v4 JSON files but can't write them anymore. Each destination wants something different: Thunder Client reads v4 and v5, Yaak lists "v4+", Hoppscotch expects JSON, Bruno and Apidog take YAML or HAR. Make two exports, YAML and HAR, so you always have a fallback.
For a single collection, open its menu and choose Export.
- Formats
- v5 YAML, HAR
- Fallback
- HAR
Treat the export like a password file
SecurityKong's docs say it outright: "Insomnia exports confidential values in plain text." Tokens, passwords and API keys are readable in that file. Never commit it, never paste it in chat, and delete it once the import checks out.
If your new tool stores everything in Git (Bruno, or Yaak with folder sync), split secret values out before the first commit. A token pushed to a shared repo gets rotated, no exceptions.
- Risk
- plain-text secrets
- Rule
- delete after import
Import one collection first
Day 1Start with a representative collection: auth, variables, scripts. Replay its requests in the new client with Insomnia open next to it, and compare responses. If it holds up, bring in the rest.
On Thunder Client's free plan, every import counts against the 5 per month, so bundle collections into one file.
- Method
- one pilot collection
- Check
- responses side by side
Recheck what imports tend to drop
Day 2Four things. Folder and request order, which isn't always kept. Collection-level headers: an open issue on Kong's repo reports them going missing when a v5 YAML export is imported on another machine. Proxy settings, which you set up again. And auth: OAuth tokens need a fresh sign-in in the new client.
- Check
- order, headers, proxy, auth
Rewrite your insomnia.* scripts
Day 2Scripts calling insomnia.test or insomnia.expect don't convert themselves. In Bruno, post-response scripts and tests land in the post script section when they come through at all. In Hoppscotch they aren't imported. List every script, rewrite it in your new tool's syntax, then make sure it fails when the response is wrong.
- Bruno
- post script section
- Hoppscotch
- rewrite from scratch
Replace inso in CI, then switch over
Week 1If a pipeline runs the inso CLI, swap it for your new tool's. Bruno ships one; Thunder Client sets no limit on CI runs. Run old and new jobs side by side for a few days.
Only then retire Insomnia. If you keep a project around, remember that converting it to local-only permanently deletes its cloud copy.
- Parallel run
- a few days
- Trap
- cloud copy deleted
Is your tool missing from this page? Email us: hello@hackceleration.com
What makes an Insomnia move go wrong
These show up again and again in Insomnia and Bruno GitHub issues and in vendor import guides. None is hard to avoid once you know about it.
Updating before exporting
Version 8 losses followed auto-updates. One developer on Hacker News said they had to ditch Insomnia after an auto-update killed their collections. Export first, update second.
Leaving a plain-text export lying around
The file holds readable secrets. Left in Downloads or committed by mistake, it is a leak. Delete it after import.
Feeding the wrong format
Insomnia writes v5 YAML; Hoppscotch wants JSON. If an import fails with no clear message, switch formats before hunting for a bug.
Losing collection headers
Headers set at collection level can vanish on import. An API that suddenly returns 401s usually points here.
Converting to local without a backup
Staying on Insomnia in local mode is sensible if the login was your only gripe. But the conversion wipes the cloud copy for good. Export before.
Trading one account for another
Postman and Apidog both need an account. If that's why you left, look at Bruno, Yaak or self-hosted Hoppscotch. Moving off Postman too? Our Postman switching guide covers the other side.
- Export all data done before any update
- Two exports kept: v5 YAML and HAR
- Destination's import format confirmed
- Export file kept out of Git, deleted after import
- One pilot collection imported and replayed
- Folder order, collection headers, proxy and OAuth rechecked
- insomnia.test and insomnia.expect scripts rewritten
- inso job replaced and run in parallel
- No project converted to local without a backup
Insomnia API client alternative: FAQ
Is there a free alternative to Insomnia?
Yes, several. Bruno is free and open source, with no account and no cloud. Hoppscotch has a free plan and a free self-hosted edition. Apidog is free for up to 4 users. Yaak is free too, but only for personal use; work use needs a license.
Does Insomnia require an account?
Not for the Scratch Pad: before logging in, click Use the local Scratch Pad. It is local and free forever, but holds one collection. For more, Local Vault keeps projects off the cloud, though Insomnia's README says an account is still needed for most features.
Is Bruno better than Insomnia?
For offline work and Git-based teams, yes: Bruno is offline-only and has said it will never add cloud sync. Insomnia is ahead on built-in mocks and a free tier for 3 users in Git Sync. The catch with moving is scripts, which you will partly rewrite.
Who made Yaak?
The person who created Insomnia in 2014 and sold it in 2019. He started Yaak after watching Insomnia grow toward Postman's feature set, aiming for a client focused on sending requests.
Can I import Insomnia collections into another client?
Yes. Thunder Client reads v4 and v5. Bruno and Apidog take YAML or HAR. Yaak lists v4 and later. Postman has a built-in migration. Hoppscotch expects JSON and leaves scripts and tests behind.
Is Insomnia still open source?
Yes. The code is published under Apache-2.0 on Kong's GitHub. Paid plans (Pro at $12, Enterprise at $45 per user per month) add team features.
What about Insomnium?
Skip it. It is marked discontinued, and one user warns its install can overwrite your Insomnia data. Bruno and Yaak are maintained and also work without an account.
Why isn't HTTPie on the list?
Its pricing page wasn't available when we compared tools, and its web and desktop app isn't aimed at people leaving over accounts. We don't rank a tool without a verifiable price.
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