Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Insomnia REST VS API Blueprint

Compare Insomnia REST VS API Blueprint and see what are their differences

Insomnia REST logo Insomnia REST

Design, debug, test, and mock APIs locally, on Git, or cloud. Build better APIs collaboratively for the most popular protocols with a dev‑friendly UI, built-in automation, and an extensible plugin ecosystem.

API Blueprint logo API Blueprint

A powerful high-level API description language for web APIs.
  • Insomnia REST Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-05
  • API Blueprint Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-02-01

Insomnia REST features and specs

  • User-Friendly Interface
    Insomnia REST features a clean and intuitive user interface that makes it easy to create, send, and manage API requests without a steep learning curve.
  • Support for Multiple Protocols
    In addition to REST, Insomnia supports GraphQL and gRPC, making it versatile for developers working with different API protocols.
  • Environment Management
    Insomnia allows you to create and manage multiple environments, making it easier to switch between staging, development, and production settings.
  • Custom Plugins and Themes
    Insomnia supports custom plugins and themes, allowing users to extend its functionality and personalize the interface to suit their workflow.
  • Collaboration Features
    With Insomnia Teams, users can collaborate and share API requests, environments, and other resources, enhancing team productivity.
  • Cross-Platform Availability
    Insomnia is available on multiple platforms, including Windows, macOS, and Linux, providing flexibility for users on different operating systems.

Possible disadvantages of Insomnia REST

  • Resource Heavy
    Some users have reported that Insomnia can be resource-intensive, leading to potential performance issues on lower-end machines.
  • Limited Free Features
    While Insomnia offers a free tier, some of the more advanced features, such as team collaboration and sync capabilities, require a paid subscription.
  • Steeper Learning Curve for Advanced Features
    Although the basic functionalities are user-friendly, mastering the more advanced features might require a steeper learning curve.
  • Dependency on Electron
    Since Insomnia is built on Electron, it might consume more memory and disk space compared to native applications.
  • Complex Plugin System
    While the plugin system is powerful, it can be complex and challenging for users who are not familiar with JavaScript and Node.js.

API Blueprint features and specs

  • Human Readability
    API Blueprint uses a Markdown syntax, making it easy to read and write for humans. This enhances collaboration among teams as non-developers can understand the API documentation.
  • Tooling and Automation
    There are various tools available that support API Blueprint, such as Apiary, that aid in the creation, testing, and management of APIs. This can accelerate the development process.
  • Community and Support
    API Blueprint has an active community, providing a wealth of resources, forums, and documentation that can help new users get up to speed quickly.
  • Version Control Compatibility
    Being text-based, API Blueprints can be easily versioned using standard version control systems like Git, supporting collaborative development workflows.
  • Integrated Mock Servers
    Tools like Apiary provide automatic mock server generation for API Blueprints, allowing for immediate testing of API contracts without writing any code.

Possible disadvantages of API Blueprint

  • Limited Adoption
    Compared to other API specification languages like OpenAPI/Swagger, API Blueprint is not as widely adopted, which may lead to fewer resources and community support over time.
  • Tooling Limitations
    While there are tools available for API Blueprint, they may not be as comprehensive or feature-rich as those available for more popular specifications such as OpenAPI.
  • Complexity Handling
    API Blueprint might struggle with modeling complex APIs, which can be better accomplished with more detailed specification formats like OpenAPI.
  • Learning Curve
    Although it is human-readable, new users may find the syntax somewhat challenging initially, particularly if they are more accustomed to JSON or YAML used by other specifications.
  • Limited Language Support
    Some programming languages or frameworks may have limited or no support for API Blueprint, which can restrict its use in certain tech stacks.

Analysis of Insomnia REST

Overall verdict

  • Insomnia REST is an excellent choice for developers who need a robust and intuitive tool for API development and testing. Its comprehensive features and ease of use make it a competitive option alongside other popular API clients.

Why this product is good

  • Insomnia REST is widely regarded as a powerful tool due to its user-friendly interface, extensive plugin ecosystem, and support for multiple authentication protocols. It allows users to easily build, debug, and test RESTful APIs with features like environment variables, code generation, and response validation. Moreover, its compatibility with GraphQL and gRPC makes it versatile for modern development needs.

Recommended for

  • API Developers
  • Software Testers
  • Backend Engineers
  • Technical Leads
  • Anyone involved in RESTful API development and testing

Insomnia REST videos

3 Reasons to use Insomnia REST Client in your Exploratory API Testing

More videos:

  • Tutorial - Insomnia REST Client Tutorial

API Blueprint videos

API Blueprint - Design API Specs & Create API Docs in Seconds

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Insomnia REST and API Blueprint)
API Tools
93 93%
7% 7
Developer Tools
100 100%
0% 0
API Design
0 0%
100% 100
APIs
92 92%
8% 8

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Insomnia REST and API Blueprint

Insomnia REST Reviews

Top 20 Open Source & Cloud Free Postman Alternatives (2024 Updated)
Product Introduction: Insomnia is a powerful open-source API client designed for simplicity and efficiency and works great as a postman alternative. It supports REST, GraphQL, and gRPC, making it versatile for various API types.
Source: medium.com
Best Postman Alternatives To Consider in 2025
It is a free, open-source platform that boasts a user-friendly interface and robust features like environment and collection management, code snippets, and test automation. Compared to Postman, Insomnia offers a lighter footprint and a more customizable workspace.
Postman Alternatives for API Testing and Monitoring
Insomnia is a user-friendly tool for API development and testing. Insomnia allows creating and sending HTTP and REST requests, like GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, and more. Users can view API responses, including status codes, headers, and body. This enables understanding how the application handles different response scenarios, for efficient debugging.
Top 10 HTTP Client and Web Debugging Proxy Tools (2023)
Insomnia REST is the best alternative for Postman. It has more than 350 open-source plugins, plus GraphQL built-in with multiple protocol support. Since GraphQL is an added value, you can fully automate the entire lifecycle of APIs, build and debug them efficiently and with ease.
15 Best Postman Alternatives for Automated API Testing [2022 Updated]
Insomnia by Kong enables you to deliver high-quality APIs through collaboration. This postman alternative also includes testing suites, which allow you to create functional tests and centralize APIs. With this platform’s streamlined API client, sending GraphQL, REST, and SOAP requests are simple. Defining variables such as authentication credentials allows you to manage...
Source: testsigma.com

API Blueprint Reviews

We have no reviews of API Blueprint yet.
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Insomnia REST seems to be a lot more popular than API Blueprint. While we know about 129 links to Insomnia REST, we've tracked only 12 mentions of API Blueprint. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Insomnia REST mentions (129)

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API Blueprint mentions (12)

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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Insomnia REST and API Blueprint, you can also consider the following products

Postman - The Collaboration Platform for API Development

Hoppscotch - Open source API development ecosystem

Apiary - Collaborative design, instant API mock, generated documentation, integrated code samples, debugging and automated testing

RapidAPI for Mac - Paw is a REST client for Mac.

Django REST framework - Django REST framework is a toolkit for building web APIs.

soapUI - SoapUI Pro is one of the most prominent API testing platforms around, allowing developers to quickly prototype the functions of their apps and get them to market with little hassle.