Happy Valley

Insomnia vs Radar

Insomnia and Radar are both developer tools tools aimed at developers and small businesses. Insomnia costs less, from $12/mo versus $149/mo for Radar. Both have a free plan.

Insomnia

Open-source API client for REST, GraphQL, gRPC and MCP from Kong

Radar

Open-source Kubernetes UI and MCP server for engineers and agents

PricingOpen source · $12Open source · $149
Starting price$12/mo$149/mo
Free planYesYes
Free trial14 days14 days
Built forDevelopers, Small businesses, EnterpriseDevelopers, Small businesses, Enterprise
Platformsmacos, windows, linuxweb, macos, windows, linux
CountryUS · 2015IL · 2023
Rating——

Choose Insomnia if

Developers who want a fast, local-first, open-source API client with Git-based collaboration.

  • Open-source core under the Apache 2.0 license
  • Local-first storage keeps sensitive requests off the cloud
  • Clean, fast interface that is lighter than Postman

Look elsewhere if: Teams that need a full API platform with published docs and broad workspace collaboration (Postman, Apidog, Stoplight).

Choose Radar if

Platform and DevOps teams that want a free open-source Kubernetes UI and a safe way to give AI agents cluster context.

  • Fully featured open-source build under Apache 2.0
  • Single binary and desktop app for macOS, Windows and Linux, no account needed
  • Read-only MCP endpoint lets agents inspect clusters safely

Look elsewhere if: Teams that need full-stack metrics, logs and APM in one hosted suite (Datadog, Dynatrace).

Insomnia vs Radar pricing

Insomnia

  • Essentials$0Local, Git and cloud projects; Git Sync for up to 3 users
  • Pro$12/user/mo$10 billed annually; unlimited users, RBAC, 10K mock requests
  • Enterprise$45/user/moSelf-serve up to 50 users; SSO, SCIM, storage policies

Radar

  • Radar OSS$0Apache 2.0, unlimited clusters, one cluster at a time
  • Cloud Free$03 hosted clusters, unlimited users, 100 investigations/mo
  • Team$149/cluster/moScoped RBAC, fleet cost rollup; 20% off annual contracts
  • Enterprise$299/cluster/moSSO, SCIM, SIEM export, self-managed; 20% off annual contracts
  • CustomCustomAnnual contract, air-gapped, data residency, 99.9% SLA

Insomnia · Key features

  • Requests for REST, GraphQL, gRPC, WebSocket, SSE and Socket.IO
  • MCP client for testing Model Context Protocol servers
  • OpenAPI design editor with live preview and linting
  • Local, Git or end-to-end encrypted cloud storage per project
  • Collection runner with pre- and post-request scripts and tests
  • Mock servers built from specs, responses or plain-language prompts

Cons

  • Collaboration and API documentation features trail Postman
  • Free Git Sync is limited to 3 users
  • Past login and sync changes hurt community trust

Radar · Key features

  • Issues queue that groups failures by root cause and blast radius
  • Live topology graph and resource browser for any conformant cluster
  • Event and change timeline with diffs beyond the one-hour default
  • Helm release views with upgrades and rollbacks
  • Argo CD and Flux drift detection, diagnosis and sync
  • Cluster audit with 44 best-practice checks

Cons

  • Per-cluster pricing gets expensive for large fleets
  • Radar Cloud SSO and SCIM only on the $299 Enterprise plan
  • Team plan keeps just 3 days of timeline history

Insomnia vs Radar: FAQ

Which is cheaper, Insomnia or Radar?

Insomnia starts at $12/mo and Radar at $149/mo. Both prices are checked on the vendors' own pricing pages.

Do Insomnia and Radar have a free plan?

Yes, both Insomnia and Radar have a free plan; paid plans add more usage and features.

Not sure yet?

Insomnia vs Radar (2026): Pricing and Features