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Kong Insomnia
Every developer keeps their own API requests. Your team shouldn’t have to rebuild them — Kong Insomnia designs, debugs, mocks and tests APIs and MCP servers in one open-source client — with each project kept on the laptop, in your own Git, or in end-to-end-encrypted cloud sync.
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Same software. Better outcome — at a lower cost.
How it’s rated
Full scoreboard ↓Quick answer
The Kong platform family
This page covers Kong Insomnia — the API client. The rest:
Quick facts
30-second orientation- Product
- Open-source desktop API client
- Protocols
- REST, GraphQL, gRPC, WebSocket, SSE, MCP
- Licence
- Apache-2.0; 40,000+ GitHub stars
- Storage
- Local Vault, Git Sync or E2EE Cloud Sync
- Essentials
- $0 — Git Sync for up to 3 users
- Pro
- $12 per user/month; RBAC, unlimited users
- Enterprise
- $45 per user/month; SSO, SCIM, vaults
- Insomnia 12
- MCP client, AI mocks, AI commit messages
- India
- Cloud Sync in GCP US Central; Local or Git stays yours
- In India via
- TechBag — INR/GST, seat sizing and support
Understand API clients before you standardise on one
Most product pages skip this. We start here — so you buy a capability, not a buzzword.
What is an API client?
A workbench for calling APIs — build a request, send it, inspect the response, and save it for the team to reuse.
Requests scattered across personal clients vs one shared API client — the honest table
What consolidation actually replaces, dimension by dimension.
| Dimension | Requests in personal clients | Kong Insomnia |
|---|---|---|
| Where requests live | Personal clients on each laptop | Shared projects in Local Vault, Git or Cloud Sync |
| API keys | Pasted into environments and chat threads | Vault integrations on Enterprise |
| Spec checks | Reviewed by eye, if at all | Inso CLI linting in the pipeline |
| Mocks | Wait for the backend, or hand-write a stub | Mock servers, including AI-generated ones |
| The price | Free tools with no admin control | $0 Essentials; Pro $12, Enterprise $45 per user/month |
| What it is NOT | — | Not a gateway or hosted API platform |
The cheapest test is one team: import its collections into Git Sync for a fortnight and see whether reviews catch API changes earlier.
The five pieces of the platform
Vendors love diagrams; buyers need to know what they’re actually operating. Here’s the whole platform, demystified.
Client
The desktop app on Windows, macOS and Linux sends REST, GraphQL, gRPC, WebSocket, SSE and Socket.IO calls, and connects to MCP servers as a client.
Storage
Each project picks its home: a Local Vault on the device, a Git repository you already run, or Cloud Sync, which Kong encrypts end to end before it leaves the machine.
Inso CLI
Inso lints OpenAPI specs and runs Insomnia tests and collections inside Git pipelines, so the checks a developer runs by hand also gate every merge.
Enterprise
Enterprise adds SAML or OIDC SSO, SCIM, a rule on where projects may be stored, vault integrations and a native link to Kong Konnect’s API catalog.
Build the request in the desktop app, store it where you choose — laptop, your Git or encrypted cloud — and test it in CI.
Nine capabilities. Debug, test, govern.
Insomnia gives every developer one open-source client for calling, testing and mocking APIs, with the team choosing where the work is stored.
Six protocols in one client
REST, GraphQL, gRPC, WebSocket, Server-Sent Events and Socket.IO sit side by side, so one tool covers old and new services.
A native MCP client
Since Insomnia 12, connect to an MCP server, call any tool, prompt or resource by hand, and inspect the protocol and auth messages.
OpenAPI design with linting
Write specs in the design view and hold them to custom linting rules, which Essentials includes at no cost.
Unlimited collection runs
Run whole collections with pre- and post-request scripts; Kong puts no cap on collection runs, even on the free tier.
Mock servers, AI-generated
Build mocks by hand or describe one in plain language, a JSON sample, a URL or an OpenAPI spec and let Insomnia generate it.
Inso CLI in the pipeline
The Inso CLI lints specs and runs tests inside Git pipelines, so a broken contract fails the build instead of production.
End-to-end encrypted sync
Cloud Sync data is encrypted on the device with AES-GCM-256 keys before upload; Kong’s servers never see it in plain text.
SSO, SCIM and RBAC
Pro adds role-based access; Enterprise adds SAML or OIDC single sign-on, SCIM provisioning and domain capture.
Vaults for API keys
Enterprise pulls secrets from AWS, GCP, HashiCorp or Azure vaults, so API keys stop living in shared environment files.
Watch Kong Insomnia in action
What Insomnia 12 added, moving collections across from Postman, keeping API secrets in a vault, and a full design-to-test tour.
Kong Insomnia 12 is now generally available!
What the 12.0 release added.
How to Migrate from Postman to Insomnia: Bulk Import Guide
Moving collections across in bulk.
Managing API Secrets with Insomnia and Vault
Keeping keys out of environments.
Insomnia 101: Introduction to API Design, Debugging, and Testing with Insomnia
The full tour, design to tests.
Want a live, India-context walkthrough for your environment?
Book a guided demo →Most API clients decide where your data lives. Insomnia lets each project choose.
Here’s what genuinely sets it apart — and exactly where it stops.
You choose where every project lives
Insomnia lets each project sit in a Local Vault on the laptop, in a Git repository you already run, or in Cloud Sync that is encrypted on the device before upload. Enterprise can mandate which of the three is allowed — useful when some collections carry production credentials.
Open source under the paid tiers
The client is Apache-2.0 on GitHub with more than 40,000 stars, and Essentials costs nothing. Pro at $12 and Enterprise at $45 per user a month buy collaboration and control, not the right to send requests — the tool your developers learn stays free to keep.
APIs and MCP servers in the same client
Insomnia 12 added a native MCP client beside REST, GraphQL, gRPC, WebSocket and SSE, so teams building agent tools debug them in the tool they already use for APIs. Its AI features can run on a local LLM instead of a cloud model, which keeps prompts on your hardware.
Where it stops
It is a client, not an API platform: there are no hosted monitors, no public API network and no gateway. Cloud Sync data is held in GCP US Central, not India. SSO, SCIM, vaults and the Konnect link are Enterprise-only, and free Git Sync covers just 3 users.
The numbers behind the platform
What your Insomnia rollout looks like
Count users and pick a tier
Count the developers who need shared projects: past 3 on Git Sync you need Pro, and SSO or SCIM means Enterprise.
Decide where projects are stored
Choose Local Vault, Git Sync or Cloud Sync per project — Cloud Sync sits in GCP US Central, so check data rules first.
Import one team’s collections
Bulk-import one team’s Postman or other collections, rebuild environments, and move secrets into a vault or Local Vault.
Put Inso CLI in the pipeline
Add Inso to CI to lint OpenAPI specs and run collection tests on each merge, so the checks stop depending on memory.
Roll out and set the rules
Move remaining teams across, turn on SSO and the storage mandate on Enterprise, and retire the old personal clients.
The review scoreboard
Modelled on Gartner Peer Insights structure. *Counts and breakdowns are illustrative pending verified review collection.
Quick poll — what’s driving your evaluation?
Talk to an advisor“Our payment collections carry live partner keys. Keeping them in a Local Vault answered the security team before they asked.”
“We moved the whole team’s collections into the Git repo beside the service. API changes now get reviewed in the same pull request.”
“Testing our MCP server by hand, one tool call at a time, was the reason we tried Insomnia 12. It is now in daily use.”
“Free Git Sync stops at three users. At eight developers, Pro was cheap enough that nobody argued about the invoice.”
“Inso runs our OpenAPI lint rules on every merge. Spec drift that used to reach QA now fails the pipeline first.”
“Vault integration was the Enterprise feature we paid for — tokens are pulled at request time instead of pasted into environments.”
Where everyone sits — the grids
Analyst firms bury this view behind paywalls, and G2 retired its Grid. So here’s TechBag’s synthesis of the API client market — tap any vendor to see why it sits where it does.
TechBag API Client Grid
Execution strength vs product vision — the classic market map, minus the paywall.
Apache-2.0 client; $0, $12 and $45 per user tiers.
Storage Control × Protocol Breadth
The grid nobody publishes — how much control you keep over where requests and collections are stored vs how many protocols and lifecycle stages it covers.
Local, Git or E2EE cloud; REST to MCP.
Positions are TechBag’s illustrative synthesis of public review-platform data and vendor documentation — not a reproduction of any analyst graphic. Verify before relying on it.
Insomnia vs the API client field
Against Postman, Bruno, Hoppscotch, Thunder Client and Apidog — on deployment, protocols, price, limits, security, SSO and India.
| Dimension | Kong Insomnia | Postman | Bruno | Hoppscotch | Thunder Client | Apidog |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | Open-source API client | Cloud API platform | Git-native client | Web-first OSS client | IDE extension | All-in-one API suite |
| Deployment | Desktop; local/Git/cloud | Cloud-synced apps | Local files only | Cloud or self-host | Inside the IDE | SaaS or on-premises |
| Protocols and coverage | REST through to MCP | Broad protocols | REST to gRPC and SOAP | HTTP, GraphQL, realtime | REST-focused | Seven listed protocols |
| Pricing model | Per user, three tiers | Per user, four plans | Free core, per user | Free, cloud or self-host | Free plus three tiers | Free team, paid per user |
| Published entry price | $0; Pro $12/user/mo | Solo $9; Team $19 | Pro $6/user/mo | Business $6/user/mo | Starter $3/user/mo | Paid from $9/user/mo |
| Included vs add-on | SSO only on Enterprise | Vaults need an add-on | Git and AI on Pro | SSO on Enterprise | Tiered runs and secrets | Design to docs bundled |
| Scale and limits | Quotas per tier | Free is one user | Workspace caps | Caps not published | Run quotas | 4 free users |
| Security and secrets | E2EE and vault links | Local and shared vault | Nothing leaves the disk | Self-host for control | Secrets on Business | On-prem for isolation |
| Integrations | Inso CLI, Git, Konnect | Wide ecosystem | CLI, Git, VS Code | Web, desktop, CLI | IDE-native, CLI | Plugins and runners |
| Governance and SSO | SSO, SCIM, mandate | RBAC on Team | SSO on Ultimate | SSO from $11/user | SSO costs extra | SAML, OIDC, SCIM |
| India storage region | Local or Git in India | US or EU only | Stays on your disk | Self-host in India | Local storage | On-prem, no India SaaS |
| Support | Enterprise support tier | Follows the plan | SLA from Pro | Support on self-host EE | No SLA on pricing page | Through sales |
| Lock-in and exit | Apache-2.0, Git files | Cloud-held collections | Plain-text files | MIT, self-hostable | Closed, local data | Proprietary suite |
| Best fit | Kong shops, mixed APIs | Platform-wide teams | Git-first developers | Browser and self-host | Stay-in-the-IDE devs | Design-first suites |
Which approach fits you?
Honest fit signals — because the fastest way to lose your trust is to pretend one product wins every scenario.
Choose Insomnia if…
- ✓You want an open-source client with a real choice of local, Git or end-to-end-encrypted cloud storage
- ✓Your developers test MCP servers as well as REST, GraphQL and gRPC APIs
- ✓You already run Kong Konnect and want specs and endpoints to flow into the client
Compare alternatives if…
- ✓You want monitors, an API catalog and team workspaces in one cloud platform — weigh Postman
- ✓You want no account and no cloud at all, only files in Git — weigh Bruno
- ✓You want design, tests, mocks and hosted docs in one suite with an on-premises option — weigh Apidog
Do not expect…
- ✓SSO, SCIM or vault integrations below the $45-per-user Enterprise tier
- ✓An India region for Cloud Sync — Kong’s docs place it in GCP US Central
- ✓A gateway, hosted monitors or an API marketplace — Insomnia is the client, not the platform
Kong Insomnia is one of 35 developer tools products TechBag carries. The Developer Tools guide narrows them to a shortlist and shows the reasoning. →
What does rebuilding API requests cost you?
Drag the sliders (developers; developer-hour cost). Estimates model developer time lost to rebuilding API requests, hunting for a colleague’s collection or chasing stale specs — at an assumed 1.5 hours per developer a year, with 70% of it avoided by shared projects in one client. Both figures are assumptions. Illustrative.
Loaded cost = salary + overheads per productive hour. Illustrative only — your TechBag quote models your actual environment and modules.
Three ways to consume it
Published: Essentials is $0 per user, with Git Sync for up to 3 users and 1,000 mock requests a month. Pro is $12 per user a month (15% off billed annually); Enterprise is $45 per user a month, self-serve up to 50 users. Extra mock requests cost $10 per 25,000. Prices are in USD and exclude taxes. TechBag sizes your seats first, then quotes in INR with GST.
Pro
Best for teams sharing projects in Git
- $12 per user/month, 15% off annually
- Unlimited users on Git Sync, RBAC
- 10,000 mock requests a month
+ Platform add-ons
Best for a broader rollout
- Scoped to your estate
- Add-on modules as needed
- Phased, right-sized deployment
Enterprise
Best when SSO and storage rules matter
- $45 per user/month, self-serve to 50
- SAML/OIDC SSO, SCIM, storage mandate
- AWS, GCP, HashiCorp, Azure vaults
Buy it for less — TechBag pricing beats list
Whatever the list prices above, TechBag negotiates a significantly better deal — with GST-compliant INR invoicing and local support. Ask us for your discounted quote.
Get an India-ready quote
Tell us your requirements and current tools — we’ll model it against what you spend today.
The 8 questions to ask every vendor
Take this into your next vendor call — including ours.
How many developers need shared projects? Essentials Git Sync stops at 3 users; beyond that, Pro is $12 per user a month.
Which projects may use Cloud Sync, stored in GCP US Central — and which must stay in a Local Vault or your own Git?
Is SAML or OIDC SSO, or SCIM provisioning, a requirement? Both need Enterprise at $45 per user a month.
Where do API keys live today? Vault integrations for AWS, GCP, HashiCorp and Azure are an Enterprise feature.
How many mock requests a month will teams send? Essentials includes 1,000, Pro 10,000, then $10 per 25,000.
Which protocols do you test — REST, GraphQL, gRPC, WebSocket, SSE, MCP — and has each been tried in a pilot?
Will AI mocks and commit suggestions use a cloud model or a local LLM? Decide before code or specs are sent.
Which collections move from Postman or elsewhere, and who rebuilds the scripts and environments after import?
Questions buyers ask
Ready to evaluate Kong Insomnia?
Count the developers who share collections and decide where each project may be stored, or let a TechBag advisor scope a pilot with one team.
Stats, ratings, review counts and pricing are illustrative and sourced from public materials; verify before purchase.