Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Insomnia REST VS WSO2 API Manager

Compare Insomnia REST VS WSO2 API Manager 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.

WSO2 API Manager logo WSO2 API Manager

WSO2 API Manager is a 100% open source enterprise-class solution that supports API publishing, lifecycle management, application development, access control, rate limiting and analytics in one cleanly integrated system.
  • Insomnia REST Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-05
  • WSO2 API Manager Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-09-17

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.

WSO2 API Manager features and specs

  • Comprehensive Features
    WSO2 API Manager offers a wide range of functionality including API creation, publishing, lifecycle management, security, and analytics which allows comprehensive control over the APIs.
  • Open Source
    WSO2 API Manager is open-source, which allows for higher transparency, community support, and the ability to modify the source code to fit specific needs.
  • Extensibility and Customizability
    The platform is highly extensible and customizable, allowing users to tailor the API management solution to their specific requirements by adding custom handlers, extensions, and even integrating with other tools.
  • Robust Security
    WSO2 API Manager provides strong security measures including OAuth 2.0, JWT, and integrated Key Management, ensuring that APIs are secure and access is controlled effectively.
  • Integration Capabilities
    It has strong integration capabilities with WSO2's Integration, Identity & Access Management, and Event Streaming paradigms, enabling seamless integration with other systems and platforms.
  • Scalability
    WSO2 API Manager is built to scale, offering support for high availability and horizontal scaling, making it suitable for both small and large enterprises.

Possible disadvantages of WSO2 API Manager

  • Complexity
    The extensive feature set can make WSO2 API Manager complex to configure and manage, especially for new users who may find the learning curve steep.
  • Documentation
    While extensive, some users find the documentation to be inconsistent or lacking details in certain areas, which can make troubleshooting and advanced configuration challenging.
  • Resource Intensive
    Running WSO2 API Manager can be resource-intensive in terms of memory and CPU, which might require significant infrastructure investment, especially for large-scale deployments.
  • Support Costs
    Although the platform itself is open-source, enterprise support comes at a cost. Organizations may need to invest in commercial support packages to ensure reliable and timely assistance.
  • UI/UX
    The user interface, while functional, might not be as intuitive or modern as some competitors, potentially leading to a less streamlined user experience.
  • Performance Tuning
    Performance tuning and optimization can be complex and might require specialized knowledge to achieve optimal performance for high-throughput scenarios.

Insomnia REST videos

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

More videos:

  • Tutorial - Insomnia REST Client Tutorial

WSO2 API Manager videos

No WSO2 API Manager 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 WSO2 API Manager)
API Tools
78 78%
22% 22
Developer Tools
100 100%
0% 0
APIs
65 65%
35% 35
API Management
0 0%
100% 100

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 WSO2 API Manager

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

WSO2 API Manager Reviews

We have no reviews of WSO2 API Manager yet.
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Insomnia REST seems to be a lot more popular than WSO2 API Manager. While we know about 129 links to Insomnia REST, we've tracked only 2 mentions of WSO2 API Manager. 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

WSO2 API Manager mentions (2)

  • API Management for Asynchronous APIs: What You Need to Know
    WSO2 is a full-fledged API management platform that handles both traditional and event-driven architectures. It offers powerful analytics and monitoring tools, making it ideal for managing complex asynchronous APIs. - Source: dev.to / 8 months ago
  • Add authentication to your Express app with Asgardeo
    When you are writing code for a project, at some point you're gonna have to come across user logins. To perform user specific tasks, to save user data and to do various kinds of stuff, user accounts is a mandatory feature in any system. But building a fully fledged login system is not so easy: especially having the flexibility to incorporate many kinds of login options (Email and password, Social Logins, Magic... - Source: dev.to / over 3 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Insomnia REST and WSO2 API Manager, you can also consider the following products

Postman - The Collaboration Platform for API Development

Hoppscotch - Open source API development ecosystem

Apigee - Intelligent and complete API platform

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

Gravitee.io - Gravitee.io is a flexible, lightweight and an open source API management solution.

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.