Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Insomnia REST VS LoopBack.io

Compare Insomnia REST VS LoopBack.io 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.

LoopBack.io logo LoopBack.io

A highly extensible Node.js and TypeScript framework for building APIs and microservices.
  • Insomnia REST Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-05
  • LoopBack.io Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-06-29

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.

LoopBack.io features and specs

  • Component-Based Architecture
    LoopBack is designed with a modular architecture, making it easy to extend and organize code efficiently. It allows developers to use predefined components or create their own to add specific functionalities.
  • OpenAPI and GraphQL Support
    LoopBack provides robust support for OpenAPI and GraphQL, enabling the creation of APIs that can easily interact with different clients and meet diverse integration requirements.
  • Strong Data Source Connectivity
    LoopBack offers a rich set of connectors that support multiple databases and services, including SQL and NoSQL databases, making it easier to connect and work with different data sources.
  • Built-in Authentication and Authorization
    LoopBack includes features for handling authentication and authorization, helping developers secure their applications more effectively with less effort.
  • Developer Community and Documentation
    LoopBack has an active community and comprehensive documentation that provides examples and guides, helping developers to get started quickly and resolve issues efficiently.

Possible disadvantages of LoopBack.io

  • Steep Learning Curve
    The complexity of LoopBack's architecture and features may result in a steep learning curve for new developers, especially those not familiar with its concepts or TypeScript.
  • Performance Overhead
    The extensive functionality and abstraction layers in LoopBack can lead to performance overhead, which might not be ideal for highly optimized applications.
  • Limited Real-Time Capabilities
    LoopBack may not provide as robust support for real-time features out-of-the-box compared to some other frameworks focused on real-time communication.
  • Migration Challenges
    Migrating from previous versions of LoopBack can be complex and time-consuming, as it may require significant adjustments to the codebase to align with the latest version's standards and practices.

Insomnia REST videos

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

More videos:

  • Tutorial - Insomnia REST Client Tutorial

LoopBack.io videos

LoopBack.io Build REST APIs in under 2.5 mins

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Insomnia REST and LoopBack.io)
API Tools
100 100%
0% 0
Developer Tools
93 93%
7% 7
Web Frameworks
0 0%
100% 100
APIs
100 100%
0% 0

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 LoopBack.io

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

LoopBack.io Reviews

Top 14 Node.JS Frameworks: Which Will Rule in 2020?
Moreover, it can permit a user to build a server API, which maps to another server. Furthermore, Loopback.JS assists native browser and mobile SDKs for different clients like Browser, iOS, and Android/Java JavaScript (Angular).

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Insomnia REST seems to be a lot more popular than LoopBack.io. While we know about 129 links to Insomnia REST, we've tracked only 6 mentions of LoopBack.io. 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)

View more

LoopBack.io mentions (6)

  • Mastering Node.js
    Loopback.io is a powerful Node.js framework for creating APIs and easily connecting to backend data sources. It has an Angular.js SDK and provides SDKs for iOS and Android. - Source: dev.to / 10 months ago
  • Looking for resources to learn backend only stuff with JavaScript
    Backend is usually an API you design, can simply use Rails for this, basic Express.js or some framework like https://loopback.io/ if you want javascript otherwise you want 'system design' https://github.com/donnemartin/system-design-primer for all the load balancers/dbms if that's what you mean. Source: about 2 years ago
  • Node JS Microservice Frameworks for Developing Scalable Web Apps.
    LoopBack – Highly Extensible Node.js and TypeScript framework. Source: about 2 years ago
  • A minimalist backend REST API in NodeJS
    We deliberately decided not to use "kitchen-sink included" frameworks such as Laravel, Django, Loopback or Nest.js to keep things simple. - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
  • Coming from Scala
    I'd say check out https://loopback.io. Source: almost 3 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Insomnia REST and LoopBack.io, you can also consider the following products

Postman - The Collaboration Platform for API Development

ExpressJS - Sinatra inspired web development framework for node.js -- insanely fast, flexible, and simple

Hoppscotch - Open source API development ecosystem

Adonis JS - AdonisJs is a Node.js web framework with breath of fresh air and drizzle of elegant syntax on top of it

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

Nest.js - A progressive Node.js framework for building efficient, reliable and scalable server-side applications.