Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Insomnia REST VS Swift Playgrounds

Compare Insomnia REST VS Swift Playgrounds and see what are their differences

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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.

Swift Playgrounds logo Swift Playgrounds

Learn serious code on your iPad in a seriously fun way
  • Insomnia REST Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-05
  • Swift Playgrounds Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-06-24

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.

Swift Playgrounds features and specs

  • Engaging Interface
    Swift Playgrounds offers a visually appealing and interactive user interface that makes learning to code enjoyable and engaging for beginners, especially younger audiences.
  • iPad and Mac Support
    It is available on both iPad and Mac, providing flexibility for learners to practice coding on different Apple devices.
  • Interactive Learning
    The platform provides hands-on exercises and real-time feedback, which helps learners understand coding concepts through practical implementation.
  • Comprehensive Curriculum
    Swift Playgrounds includes a well-structured curriculum that covers basic to advanced Swift programming concepts, making it suitable for a wide range of learners.
  • Swift Language Focus
    The tool is dedicated to teaching Swift, Apple's powerful and intuitive programming language, which is widely used for developing iOS and macOS applications.
  • Free to Use
    Swift Playgrounds is available for free, which removes any financial barriers to entry for those interested in learning to code.

Possible disadvantages of Swift Playgrounds

  • Apple Ecosystem
    Swift Playgrounds is limited to Apple's ecosystem, requiring an iPad or Mac, which can exclude users who prefer or only have access to other platforms.
  • Swift Exclusivity
    The focus on Swift can be a limitation for learners who wish to explore other programming languages or need a more versatile coding education.
  • Limited Professional Depth
    While great for beginners, Swift Playgrounds may lack the depth and advanced features that more experienced developers or those seeking to build professional-grade applications might require.
  • Peripheral Requirements
    Some advanced projects might require additional peripherals and resources, such as access to hardware features or external libraries, which may not be readily available.

Insomnia REST videos

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

More videos:

  • Tutorial - Insomnia REST Client Tutorial

Swift Playgrounds videos

Swift Playgrounds for Mac is Here!

More videos:

  • Review - Getting started with Swift Playgrounds
  • Review - Programming toys with Apple's Swift Playgrounds | First Look

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Insomnia REST and Swift Playgrounds)
API Tools
100 100%
0% 0
Text Editors
0 0%
100% 100
Developer Tools
94 94%
6% 6
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 Swift Playgrounds

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

Swift Playgrounds Reviews

  1. Terrible online training course

    The lowest available rating score is 1, but if there were a zero, I would rate this program a zero. There are no pros to this programming course. The lessons are so brief that I cannot understand them. Before I gave up for good on this programming course, I was writing tons of messages to people on Youtube asking them to explain things to me, and I hated the constant hassle of having to write online messages asking for explanations for the simplest of things that the lessons did not explain. This programming course is NOT a do-it-yourself training course by any means --- and it should not be used by schoolteachers as student homework assignments, as I recently advised a 13-year-old who was having trouble with the lessons and nothing was being helpful to him. This training course should be accompanied not by brief and intelligible on-screen lessons, but it should be accompanied by a detailed high school-style textbook complete with images. By the way, I have Asperger's syndrome, I have all kinds of problems with learning and with executing tasks, and I cannot participate in gainful employment in ANY profession for this reason.

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Insomnia REST seems to be a lot more popular than Swift Playgrounds. While we know about 129 links to Insomnia REST, we've tracked only 2 mentions of Swift Playgrounds. 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

Swift Playgrounds mentions (2)

  • Ask HN: I'm a rookie building an app and need advice. Can you help?
    > I’m using AI to assist me and I’m building an app Vibe coding is a myth, it will take you only so far and will require manual fixes and refactoring before MVP. Learn the basics of and keep learning, say, Swift. https://developer.apple.com/swift-playground/ > Should I actually use a completely blank iPhone for this instead? Does not make any difference. Every app runs in its own separate environment. Only iOS... - Source: Hacker News / 21 days ago
  • 🚀 iOS vs Android Development: Which One Should You Learn First? (The Truth No One Tells You!)
    💡 Want to see real-world examples? Check out Apple's Swift Playground: Swift Playground. - Source: dev.to / 2 months ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Insomnia REST and Swift Playgrounds, you can also consider the following products

Postman - The Collaboration Platform for API Development

CodeMonkey - Learn to code. Eat Bananas. Save the World.

Hoppscotch - Open source API development ecosystem

GitHub Codespaces - GItHub Codespaces is a hosted remote coding environment by GitHub based on Visual Studio Codespaces integrated directly for GitHub.

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

StackHive - Design, develop or publish websites right from your browser