Insomnia is a polished Kong client. Ripple is the offline workbench with gRPC, SQL, mocks, and load tests built in.
Choose Insomnia for a mature, Kong-backed client with flexible storage options (local vault, Git, or cloud) and a familiar plugin ecosystem. Choose Ripple when you want maximum capability in one offline workbench — especially gRPC, SQL, OpenAPI design, mocks, load tests, and private AI — with no cloud account at all.
No Kong account
Everything in ripple.db — optional file workspaces, zero cloud sync.
Design + mock + load
OpenAPI Design Studio, local mocks, and Load Test Lab — not separate tools.
Native performance
Rust-based API workbench — faster startup than typical Electron clients.
Feature comparison
| Feature | Ripple | Insomnia |
|---|---|---|
| Desktop app | Rust-based API workbench | Electron |
| Startup / memory | < 2 s cold start, ~45 MB idle | Typical Electron footprint (100–300 MB+) |
| Account required | No | Optional (required for cloud sync) |
| Cloud sync | None — local only | Optional local / Git / cloud |
| GraphQL introspection | Yes | Yes — strong focus |
| gRPC streaming | Unary + all stream types | Supported |
| WebSocket / SSE | Yes + Socket.IO | WebSocket supported |
| SQL runner | Postgres, MySQL, SQLite | No |
| OpenAPI design studio | First-class, with lint + versioning | Import/export workflows |
| Local mock server | From Design Studio or route table | Limited mock requests on paid tiers |
| Load testing | Built-in Load Test Lab | No native load lab |
| Triage tools | Built-in — JSON tree/graph, diff, JWT, encode/decode, network diagnostics | Response viewer; limited built-in utilities |
| On-device AI | Son of Anton (offline LLM) | AI workflows on paid tiers |
| Team pricing | Free tier + Pro; file-based workspaces today | Paid Starter and Team plans |
| CI / headless CLI | rip CLI — DB, workspace, Postman/Insomnia/OpenAPI import | Inso CLI |
| Request chains | Multi-step chains with JSON-path extraction | No native chains |
Who should use what?
Choose Ripple
- You want fast startup and low memory use — Rust-native workbench instead of Electron
- You want gRPC unary + server/client/bidi streaming with reflection in the same app as HTTP
- You run SQL against Postgres, MySQL, or SQLite next to API traffic
- You design OpenAPI specs locally, version snapshots, and launch mock servers in one click
- You need load testing and collection probes without a separate tool
Choose Insomnia
- You prefer Insomnia's UI and existing Kong/Insomnia org workflows
- You need Inso CLI and its specific Kong/Insomnia plugin ecosystem today
- Optional encrypted cloud sync or Insomnia's team vault fits your compliance model
- Your team already standardized on Insomnia environments and plugins
Switch from Insomnia
- 1Import Insomnia v4 export bundles directly
- 2Import OpenAPI 2.0/3.x specs to bootstrap collections or design documents
- 3Postman environment import works if you exported envs from Insomnia-compatible workflows