Overview

Charles

Stacks140

Followers167

Votes0

Insomnia REST Client

Stacks800

Followers652

Votes44

Charles vs Insomnia REST Client: What are the differences?

Key Differences between Charles and Insomnia REST Client

User Interface: Charles has a traditional desktop application interface with a menu bar, toolbar, and multiple windows, providing a comprehensive view of network activity. On the other hand, Insomnia REST Client has a sleek and modern user interface that focuses solely on the request/response workflow, resulting in a simpler and more intuitive user experience.
Platform Compatibility: Charles is available for macOS, Windows, and Linux operating systems, allowing it to cater to a wider range of users. In contrast, Insomnia REST Client is primarily designed for macOS, with limited support for Windows and Linux, which may limit its accessibility for some users.
Proxy and Recording Capabilities: One of Charles' key strengths is its powerful proxy and recording capabilities. It can act as a proxy server to intercept and record network traffic, making it ideal for debugging and analyzing web applications. Insomnia REST Client, on the other hand, lacks built-in proxy and recording functionality, focusing more on the development and testing of REST APIs.
Plugins and Extensions: Charles supports a wide range of plugins and extensions, allowing users to extend its functionality and integrate it with other tools and services. Insomnia REST Client, while lacking the extensive plugin ecosystem of Charles, does offer a selection of built-in plugins and extensions, such as OAuth support and code generation.
Collaboration and Sharing: Insomnia REST Client offers seamless collaboration and sharing features, allowing users to synchronize their workspaces and share API specifications with teammates. This makes it easier for teams to work together and maintain consistency in their API development process. Charles, on the other hand, lacks these collaboration and sharing features, making it less suited for team-based projects.
Pricing Model: Charles follows a one-time purchase model, where users pay a fixed price to obtain a perpetual license for the software. On the contrary, Insomnia REST Client offers a freemium pricing model, with a free version that provides most essential features and a paid Pro version with additional advanced features and support options.

In Summary, Charles and Insomnia REST Client differ in their user interface, platform compatibility, proxy and recording capabilities, plugin support, collaboration features, and pricing models.

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Advice on Charles, Insomnia REST Client

Stephen

Artificial Intelligence Fellow

Feb 4, 2020

Decided

Postman supports automation and organization in a way that Insomnia just doesn't. Admittedly, Insomnia makes it slightly easy to query the data that you get back (in a very MongoDB-esque query language) but Postman sets you up to develop the code that you would use in development/testing right in the editor.

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Comments

Detailed Comparison

Charles	Insomnia REST Client
Charles is a web proxy (HTTP Proxy / HTTP Monitor) that runs on your own computer. Your web browser (or any other Internet application) is then configured to access the Internet through Charles, and Charles is then able to record and display for you all of the data that is sent and received.	Insomnia is a powerful REST API Client with cookie management, environment variables, code generation, and authentication for Mac, Window, and Linux.
SSL Proxying – view SSL requests and responses in plain text;Bandwidth Throttling to simulate slower Internet connections including latency;AJAX debugging – view XML and JSON requests and responses as a tree or as text;AMF – view the contents of Flash Remoting / Flex Remoting messages as a tree;Repeat requests to test back-end changes;Edit requests to test different inputs;Breakpoints to intercept and edit requests or responses;Validate recorded HTML, CSS and RSS/atom responses using the W3C validator	Mac, Windows and Linux;Data import/export;SSL client certificates;Response history;JSONPath and XPath;Preview rendered HTML;Multipart form;Query parameter editor;Configurable proxy;Cloud sync and sharing;Nunjucks templating;Filter requests;Toggle SSL validation;Keyboard shortcuts;Configurable timeout;HAR import;Usable at almost all sizes;Drag-n-drop organization;Responsive interface;Import from curl;
Statistics
Stacks 140	Stacks 800
Followers 167	Followers 652
Votes 0	Votes 44
Pros & Cons
No community feedback yet	Pros 16 Easy to work with 11 Great user interface 6 Works with GraphQL 4 Cross platform, available for Mac, Windows, and Linux 3 Opensource Cons 4 Do not have team sharing options 2 Do not store credentials in HTTP

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