Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

JS Bin VS Insomnia REST

Compare JS Bin VS Insomnia REST and see what are their differences

Note: These products don't have any matching categories. If you think this is a mistake, please edit the details of one of the products and suggest appropriate categories.

JS Bin logo JS Bin

Sample of the bin:

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.
  • JS Bin Landing page
    Landing page //
    2018-10-09
  • Insomnia REST Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-05

JS Bin features and specs

  • Real-time Collaboration
    JS Bin allows multiple users to work on the same code simultaneously, making it easy for teams to collaborate on front-end projects in real-time.
  • Instant Preview
    Changes to HTML, CSS, and JavaScript code are previewed instantly, allowing users to see the results of their work without manual refreshing or deploying.
  • Embed Feature
    Users can easily embed their bins into other web pages, making it convenient to share examples or demonstrate code snippets in blogs or documentation.
  • Debugging Tools
    JS Bin includes built-in debugging tools such as console log inspection, making it easier to identify and fix issues directly within the platform.
  • Customizable Environments
    Users can set up their preferred coding environment with various settings, including templates, libraries, and preprocessors, to enhance productivity.

Possible disadvantages of JS Bin

  • Limited Offline Use
    As a web-based application, JS Bin requires an internet connection to access and use, limiting its functionality in offline scenarios.
  • Performance Constraints
    Complex or heavy projects may experience performance issues as the platform is designed for smaller snippets and quick testing rather than large-scale applications.
  • Security Concerns
    Public sharing of bins can lead to exposure of sensitive code or data. Users need to be cautious about publicly sharing any code with proprietary or confidential information.
  • Limited Backend Capabilities
    JS Bin is focused on front-end development, so it offers minimal support for backend technologies, which may limit its use for full-stack development.
  • Subscription Cost for Premium Features
    Advanced features and additional functionalities often require a paid subscription, which may not be suitable for all users, especially hobbyists or students.

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.

JS Bin videos

JS Bin saving - a quick explanation

More videos:

  • Review - Customising JS Bin's editor
  • Review - JS Bin - shortcut urls

Insomnia REST videos

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

More videos:

  • Tutorial - Insomnia REST Client Tutorial

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to JS Bin and Insomnia REST)
Programming
100 100%
0% 0
API Tools
0 0%
100% 100
Text Editors
100 100%
0% 0
Developer Tools
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 JS Bin and Insomnia REST

JS Bin Reviews

8 Best Replit Alternatives & Competitors in 2022 (Free & Paid) - Software Discover
A live pastebin for HTML, CSS & javascript and a range of processors, including scss, coffeescript, jade and more. JS bin – collaborative javascript debugging.
6 Coding Playgrounds For Web Developers
What sets it apart from the previous playgrounds is that JS Bin allows you to download files to your computer, a nifty feature that may prove useful to developers, especially when fiddling around with code while offline. You can also create private “bins” on JS Bin but you will have to pay for this feature. Unfortunately, at this point, JS Bin doesn’t have a collaboration...

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

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Insomnia REST should be more popular than JS Bin. It has been mentiond 129 times since March 2021. 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.

JS Bin mentions (25)

  • Ask HN: How can I get my 7-year-old started with web development?
    I don't understand why all these comments are against web dev. Creating an html file is quick, easy, and most importantly for kids, you instantly get visual results! You don't even need to open ugly terminal consoles, you could just use something like JS Bin (https://jsbin.com/) or JSFiddle or CodePen. I used to volunteer with CoderDojo, a non-profit that hosted intro to coding workshops for kids of all ages... - Source: Hacker News / 3 months ago
  • 100+ Must-Have Web Development Resources
    JS Bin: Allows you to save edited code locally or share a URL for collaborative debugging. Supports HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Markdown, Jade, and Sass. - Source: dev.to / 7 months ago
  • A list of SaaS, PaaS and IaaS offerings that have free tiers of interest to devops and infradev
    Jsbin.com — JS Bin is another playground and code-sharing site of front-end web (HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. It Also supports Markdown, Jade, and Sass). - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • 10 best Javascript debugging tools
    JS Bin is one of the useful JavaScript debugging tools designed for developers working with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. It gives them the opportunity to test and debug their code snippets in a real-world setting. The fact that this tool is open-source is fantastic. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • <code> + linebreak breaks code segment. <code> without linebreak doesn't.
    If I paste both in jsbin.com, the both show all content on 1 line. Source: about 2 years ago
View more

Insomnia REST mentions (129)

View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing JS Bin and Insomnia REST, you can also consider the following products

CodePen - A front end web development playground.

Postman - The Collaboration Platform for API Development

JSFiddle - Test your JavaScript, CSS, HTML or CoffeeScript online with JSFiddle code editor.

Hoppscotch - Open source API development ecosystem

Pastebin.com - Pastebin.com is a website where you can store text for a certain period of time.

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