Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Insomnia REST VS React.run

Compare Insomnia REST VS React.run 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.

React.run logo React.run

Quick in-browser prototyping for React Components!
  • Insomnia REST Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-05
  • React.run Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-06-11

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.

React.run features and specs

  • Simplified Setup
    React.run provides a streamlined and efficient setup for starting new React projects, minimizing the initial configuration time.
  • Pre-configured Environment
    It comes with a pre-configured environment that includes essential tools and libraries, reducing the need for additional setup and compatibility checks.
  • Boost developer productivity
    By automating much of the setup process, React.run allows developers to focus more on coding and less on configuring their development environment.
  • Consistency
    Ensures a standardized environment across different projects, which can be particularly beneficial for teams and large-scale applications.
  • Community Support
    Being an officially supported tool, it benefits from strong community support and timely updates from the React team.

Possible disadvantages of React.run

  • Limited Flexibility
    The pre-configured setup may not suit all project requirements, and making customizations can sometimes be challenging or require additional steps.
  • Learning Curve
    Developers new to React.run might face a learning curve as they adapt to the specific configurations and conventions used by the tool.
  • Dependency on Tool
    Relying heavily on React.run can create dependency, making it harder to switch to different tools or configurations if needed in the future.
  • Updates and Compatibility
    Although it receives updates, there's always a risk that a new version might introduce breaking changes or compatibility issues with existing projects.
  • Potential Overhead
    The inclusion of tools and libraries that may not be necessary for all projects can potentially add overhead and bloat to the development environment.

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

Analysis of React.run

Overall verdict

  • Yes, React.run (react.dev) is a valuable resource for understanding and utilizing React effectively.

Why this product is good

  • React.run, the official website for React's documentation and learning resources, is well-regarded because it provides comprehensive, up-to-date information on React. It is maintained by developers with intimate knowledge of the library. The site features tutorials, guides, and best practices that are essential for both beginners and advanced users.

Recommended for

    It is recommended for developers of all levels who are working with or interested in React. Beginners can benefit from the structured tutorials and foundational information, while experienced developers can find advanced topics and the latest developments in the React ecosystem.

Insomnia REST videos

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

More videos:

  • Tutorial - Insomnia REST Client Tutorial

React.run videos

No React.run 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 React.run)
API Tools
100 100%
0% 0
Javascript UI Libraries
0 0%
100% 100
Developer Tools
72 72%
28% 28
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 React.run

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

React.run Reviews

We have no reviews of React.run yet.
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Social recommendations and mentions

React.run might be a bit more popular than Insomnia REST. We know about 188 links to it since March 2021 and only 129 links to Insomnia REST. 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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React.run mentions (188)

  • Next.js 15.1 is unusable outside of Vercel
    They exert immense influence over the React ecosystem, even its documentation. Example: https://react.dev/learn/creating-a-react-app If you are new to React and just figuring out how to get it running, you will likely end up on this page. The first recommendation is Next.js. The real best way for a beginner to start is IMO Vite. Comes with everything you need to get started and lets you choose what to do next.... - Source: Hacker News / 4 days ago
  • You should know this before choosing Next.js
    [2] https://react.dev/learn/creating-a-react-app. - Source: Hacker News / 3 months ago
  • CVE-2025-29927 – Next.js
    > What do you get out of Next.js over vanilla React? The biggest problem is that React itself recommends against using Vanilla React. https://react.dev/learn/creating-a-react-app > If you want to build a new app or website with React, we recommend starting with a framework. This, frankly, is insane. The whole point of React was that it was this relatively lightweight UI library you could drop into pretty much any... - Source: Hacker News / 3 months ago
  • How much traffic can a pre-rendered Next.js site handle?
    I think people reasonably expect, say, an aws lambda to be aws specific. That's a very different story to React, which is supposed to be a library for general application ui development, and the official react documentation recommending Next as the way to use it. https://react.dev/learn/creating-a-react-app. - Source: Hacker News / 3 months ago
  • Sunsetting Create React App
    Interestingly, the Creating a React App page (https://react.dev/learn/creating-a-react-app) does not mention Remix. - Source: Hacker News / 4 months ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Insomnia REST and React.run, you can also consider the following products

Postman - The Collaboration Platform for API Development

React - A JavaScript library for building user interfaces

Hoppscotch - Open source API development ecosystem

Vite - Next Generation Frontend Tooling

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

Next.js - A small framework for server-rendered universal JavaScript apps