Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Proxyman.io VS Insomnia REST

Compare Proxyman.io VS Insomnia REST and see what are their differences

Proxyman.io logo Proxyman.io

Proxyman is a high-performance macOS app, which enables developers to view HTTP/HTTPS requests from apps and domains.

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.
  • Proxyman.io Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-02-25

Modern and Delightful HTTP Debugging Proxy Proxyman is a native, high-performance macOS application, which enables developers to observe and manipulate HTTP/HTTPS requests.

  • Insomnia REST Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-05

Proxyman.io features and specs

  • User-Friendly Interface
    Proxyman.io provides an intuitive and easy-to-navigate user interface, making it accessible for both beginners and advanced users.
  • Cross-Platform Support
    It supports multiple platforms including macOS, Windows, and Linux, ensuring a broad range of users can utilize the tool.
  • Real-time Traffic Interception
    Proxyman.io offers real-time traffic interception and inspection, enabling users to debug and analyze traffic as it happens.
  • HTTPS Decryption
    The tool supports HTTPS decryption, allowing users to view encrypted traffic for more thorough analysis.
  • Customizable Filters
    Users can set up customizable filters to focus on specific types of traffic or protocols, enhancing productivity and efficiency.
  • Extensive Documentation
    Proxyman.io provides detailed documentation and tutorials, helping users to make the most of the software.
  • Active Community and Support
    The tool has an active community and responsive support team, providing assistance and updates regularly.

Possible disadvantages of Proxyman.io

  • Cost
    While Proxyman.io offers a free trial, the full version is paid, which might be a barrier for some users or smaller organizations.
  • Learning Curve
    Despite its user-friendly interface, new users might still experience a learning curve to fully utilize all features.
  • Resource Intensive
    The application can be resource-intensive, potentially slowing down the system when intercepting high volumes of traffic.
  • Limited Free Version
    The free version has limitations in terms of features and volume of traffic it can handle, which may necessitate purchasing the paid version for extensive use.
  • Occasional Bugs
    Like any software, it can have occasional bugs or performance issues, although these are generally addressed quickly by the development team.

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.

Proxyman.io videos

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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 Proxyman.io and Insomnia REST)
Developer Tools
34 34%
66% 66
API Tools
0 0%
100% 100
Proxy
100 100%
0% 0
Security
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 Proxyman.io and Insomnia REST

Proxyman.io Reviews

Top 10 HTTP Client and Web Debugging Proxy Tools (2023)
Proxyman just like Paw is a native macOS web debugging proxy application. This tool stands as an intermediary or a man-in-the-middle server. With its built-in macOS setup, you can capture, inspect and get around HTTP(s) traffic, request, and responses easily. What set Proxyman aside from Paw is the fact that it is more advance in functionalities.
12 HTTP Client and Web Debugging Proxy Tools
Similar to the above-mentioned Paw, Proxyman is a premium native macOS web debugging proxy application.
Source: geekflare.com
Comparing Charles Proxy, Fiddler, Wireshark, and Requestly
On the pricing front, Requestly strikes a balance between affordability and functionality. It is an open-source tool, offering freemium to individual developers and affordable pricing plans for team collaboration. We have also clearly differentiated how Requestly differs from Wireshark and other web debugging tools like Proxyman, Modheader, and HTTP ToolKit separately.
Source: dev.to

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 Proxyman.io. 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.

Proxyman.io mentions (25)

  • Catching useful errors when parsing JSON fails in Swift
    Armed with this you could now investigate the raw JSON using HTTP proxying (I like to use ProxyMan for this), and/or talk to the back-end team, see if they've made some changes and are aware of the breakage in the contract between client and server. - Source: dev.to / 8 months ago
  • Show HN: Pākiki Proxy – An intercepting proxy for penetration pesting
    I previously used Proxyman [1] on iOS to the http requests send over TLS. It worked rather nicely. Proxyman in this case starts a VPN which handles all the traffic. It uses custom certificate to decrypt the messages. [1] https://proxyman.io/. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • A collection of useful Mac Apps
    Proxyman - Price: Free (optional paid plans available) Modern and intuitive HTTP/HTTPS debugging proxy app for macOS. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • What are your favorite apps that has active development? (frequent new features, bug fixes, etc)
    I'm using self-developed app MindMac daily to talk with ChatGPT, Proxyman to capture network, TablePlus to access databases and CleanshotX to take screenshots. All of them are currently in an active status. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Mac Power Users 690: Better Touch Tool with Andreas Hegenberg
    Links and Show Notes:More Power Users: Ad-free episodes with regular bonus segmentsSubmit Feedbackfolivora.ai - Great Tools for your Mac!iPhone Praktikum 2009GitHub - quicklywilliam/multiclutch: Customization App for Macbooks with MultiTouch supportHopperFSMonitorProxyman · Native, Modern Web Debugging Proxy · Inspect network traffic from Mac, iOS, Android devices with easeCharles Web Debugging Proxy • HTTP... Source: about 2 years ago
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Insomnia REST mentions (129)

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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Proxyman.io and Insomnia REST, you can also consider the following products

Charles Proxy - HTTP proxy / HTTP monitor / Reverse Proxy

Postman - The Collaboration Platform for API Development

HTTP Toolkit - Beautiful, cross-platform & open-source tools to debug, test & build with HTTP(S). One-click setup for browsers, servers, Android, CLI tools, scripts and more.

Hoppscotch - Open source API development ecosystem

mitmproxy - mitmproxy is an SSL-capable man-in-the-middle proxy for HTTP.

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