Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Insomnia REST VS Postman for Mac (Beta)

Compare Insomnia REST VS Postman for Mac (Beta) 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 devโ€‘friendly UI, built-in automation, and an extensible plugin ecosystem.

Postman for Mac (Beta) logo Postman for Mac (Beta)

Build, test, and document your APIs faster
  • Insomnia REST Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-05
  • Postman for Mac (Beta) Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-02

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.

Postman for Mac (Beta) features and specs

  • User-Friendly Interface
    Postman for Mac (Beta) features an intuitive and easy-to-navigate interface, making it accessible for both beginners and experienced users when crafting API requests.
  • Comprehensive API Testing Tools
    The application provides a wide array of tools for testing APIs, including the ability to create and run automated tests, which simplifies API development and testing processes.
  • Collaboration Features
    Postman includes collaboration options that allow teams to share collections and documentations, enhancing teamwork and the seamless exchange of API information.
  • Extensive Integration Support
    It supports integrations with many services and platforms such as Jenkins, GitHub, and Slack, which allows users to integrate Postman into various stages of the development workflow.
  • Cross-Platform Support
    The beta version for Mac is part of Postman's cross-platform strategy, ensuring that users can maintain consistency across different operating systems.

Possible disadvantages of Postman for Mac (Beta)

  • Performance Issues
    Some users may experience performance issues such as lag or slower load times, which can be a hindrance during intensive API testing sessions.
  • Learning Curve for Advanced Features
    While basic features are accessible, mastering advanced functionalities such as scripting require a steeper learning curve, which might be challenging for new users.
  • Limited Offline Functionality
    The application has limited functionality when offline, which can be inconvenient for users who need constant access to local resources and do not have a reliable internet connection.
  • Resource Intensive
    Postman can be resource-intensive, potentially leading to higher CPU and memory usage, which might be problematic for users with low-spec machines or when running multiple applications simultaneously.
  • Occasional Bugs
    Being a beta version, users might encounter occasional bugs or crashes, affecting reliability and requiring workarounds until stable updates are released.

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

Postman for Mac (Beta) videos

No Postman for Mac (Beta) videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

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Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Insomnia REST and Postman for Mac (Beta))
API Tools
100 100%
0% 0
Developer Tools
95 95%
5% 5
Productivity
0 0%
100% 100
APIs
93 93%
7% 7

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 Postman for Mac (Beta)

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 platformโ€™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

Postman for Mac (Beta) Reviews

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Insomnia REST seems to be a lot more popular than Postman for Mac (Beta). While we know about 131 links to Insomnia REST, we've tracked only 1 mention of Postman for Mac (Beta). 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 (131)

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Postman for Mac (Beta) mentions (1)

  • Postman for MCP
    Postman is already Postman for MCP. We launched MCP support several weeks ago, both in generating MCP servers from the public APIs on our network (over 100k) and with the MCP client which can test, debug, and validate MCP servers with full support for streamable http, sse, and stdio and capabilities (tools, prompts, resources). Check it out! https://postman.com/downloads. - Source: Hacker News / 5 months ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Insomnia REST and Postman for Mac (Beta), you can also consider the following products

Postman - The Collaboration Platform for API Development

Hoppscotch - Open source API development ecosystem

150 ChatGPT 4.0 prompts for SEO - Unlock the power of AI to boost your website's visibility.

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

RestHuman - Simple secure app for API management + testing for humans

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.