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  5. Insomnia REST Client vs Swagger Codegen

Insomnia REST Client vs Swagger Codegen

OverviewDecisionsComparisonAlternatives

Overview

Swagger Codegen
Swagger Codegen
Stacks194
Followers163
Votes1
GitHub Stars17.6K
Forks6.0K
Insomnia REST Client
Insomnia REST Client
Stacks800
Followers652
Votes44

Insomnia REST Client vs Swagger Codegen: What are the differences?

Introduction

In this markdown, we will be comparing the key differences between Insomnia REST Client and Swagger Codegen. Both Insomnia REST Client and Swagger Codegen are popular tools used in API development, but they have different functionalities and use cases.

1. Response Visualization:

Insomnia REST Client provides a user-friendly interface for making API requests and visualizing the responses. It allows users to view the response in different formats, such as JSON, HTML, and XML, making it easier to analyze and debug the API's behavior. On the other hand, Swagger Codegen focuses on generating client code based on an API's specifications, without emphasizing on visualizing the responses.

2. Documentation Generation:

Swagger Codegen excels in automatically generating detailed API documentation based on the provided OpenAPI specification. It can generate HTML or Markdown documentation that includes information about the API endpoints, parameters, request and response models, and response codes. Insomnia REST Client, while it provides a great interface for testing and working with APIs, does not offer comprehensive documentation generation capabilities.

3. Code Generation and Integration:

Swagger Codegen is primarily designed for generating client SDKs and server stubs that can be used in various programming languages. It allows developers to generate code skeletons based on the OpenAPI specification and integrate them into their projects seamlessly. Insomnia REST Client, on the other hand, is focused on providing a flexible and feature-rich environment for manually interacting with APIs, rather than generating code artifacts.

4. Collaboration and Teamwork:

Insomnia REST Client offers collaborative features, such as sharing API requests and workspaces with team members. It allows for seamless collaboration on API testing and development, making it suitable for teams working together on a project. In contrast, Swagger Codegen primarily focuses on code generation and does not provide built-in collaboration features, making it less suitable for collaborative API development workflows.

5. OpenAPI Specification Support:

Swagger Codegen is built specifically for working with OpenAPI specifications. It supports the entire OpenAPI ecosystem, including support for specification versions 2.0 and 3.x. Insomnia REST Client, while it can work with OpenAPI specifications, is not built specifically for it and does not have the same level of tooling and integration with the OpenAPI ecosystem.

6. Extensibility and Customization:

Insomnia REST Client provides a range of built-in features and plugins that allow users to extend its functionality and customize their API testing workflows. It supports various authentication methods, scripting, dynamic variables, and environment management. Swagger Codegen, on the other hand, is more focused on code generation and does not offer the same level of extensibility and customization options.

In summary, Insomnia REST Client and Swagger Codegen have different strengths and use cases. Insomnia REST Client provides a user-friendly interface for testing and interacting with APIs, with features like response visualization and collaboration support. On the other hand, Swagger Codegen is primarily focused on generating client SDKs and server stubs based on OpenAPI specifications, with capabilities for automatic documentation generation.

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Advice on Swagger Codegen, Insomnia REST Client

Stephen
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

Swagger Codegen
Swagger Codegen
Insomnia REST Client
Insomnia REST Client

It is an open source project which allows generation of API client libraries (SDK generation), server stubs, and documentation automatically from an OpenAPI Specification.

Insomnia is a powerful REST API Client with cookie management, environment variables, code generation, and authentication for Mac, Window, and Linux.

Generate client SDKs in over 40 different languages for end developers to easily integrate with your API; Always updated with the latest and greatest changes in the programming world; Remove tedious plumbing and configuration by generating boilerplate server code in over 20 different languages
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
GitHub Stars
17.6K
GitHub Stars
-
GitHub Forks
6.0K
GitHub Forks
-
Stacks
194
Stacks
800
Followers
163
Followers
652
Votes
1
Votes
44
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 1
    SDK Generation
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
Integrations
Objective-C
Objective-C
Swift
Swift
JavaScript
JavaScript
Linux
Linux
C++
C++
Perl
Perl
Java
Java
Golang
Golang
TypeScript
TypeScript
Ruby
Ruby
No integrations available

What are some alternatives to Swagger Codegen, Insomnia REST Client?

Postman

Postman

It is the only complete API development environment, used by nearly five million developers and more than 100,000 companies worldwide.

Paw

Paw

Paw is a full-featured and beautifully designed Mac app that makes interaction with REST services delightful. Either you are an API maker or consumer, Paw helps you build HTTP requests, inspect the server's response and even generate client code.

Karate DSL

Karate DSL

Combines API test-automation, mocks and performance-testing into a single, unified framework. The BDD syntax popularized by Cucumber is language-neutral, and easy for even non-programmers. Besides powerful JSON & XML assertions, you can run tests in parallel for speed - which is critical for HTTP API testing.

Appwrite

Appwrite

Appwrite's open-source platform lets you add Auth, DBs, Functions and Storage to your product and build any application at any scale, own your data, and use your preferred coding languages and tools.

Runscope

Runscope

Keep tabs on all aspects of your API's performance with uptime monitoring, integration testing, logging and real-time monitoring.

RAML

RAML

RESTful API Modeling Language (RAML) makes it easy to manage the whole API lifecycle from design to sharing. It's concise - you only write what you need to define - and reusable. It is machine readable API design that is actually human friendly.

Apigee

Apigee

API management, design, analytics, and security are at the heart of modern digital architecture. The Apigee intelligent API platform is a complete solution for moving business to the digital world.

Hoppscotch

Hoppscotch

It is a free, fast and beautiful API request builder. It helps you create requests faster, saving precious time on development

Falcor

Falcor

Falcor lets you represent all your remote data sources as a single domain model via a virtual JSON graph. You code the same way no matter where the data is, whether in memory on the client or over the network on the server.

DuckRails

DuckRails

DuckRails is an open source development tool that helps developer mock API endpoints quickly & dynamically outside the application code.

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