Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Insomnia REST VS Retool

Compare Insomnia REST VS Retool and see what are their differences

Insomnia REST logo Insomnia REST

The most intuitive cross-platform REST API Client 😴

Retool logo Retool

Build custom internal tools in minutes.
  • Insomnia REST Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-05
  • Retool Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-08-04

Retool

Website
retool.com
$ Details
freemium $10.0 / Monthly (Startup)
Release Date
2017 January
Startup details
Country
United States
State
California
Founder(s)
David Hsu
Employees
10 - 19

Insomnia REST videos

3 Reasons to use Insomnia REST Client in your Exploratory API Testing

More videos:

  • Tutorial - Insomnia REST Client Tutorial

Retool videos

Retool - Logic Review

More videos:

  • Review - #Worth?! Ep.12 - Retool (Gameplay / Review)
  • Demo - February NY Enterprise Tech Meetup: Retool Demo

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Insomnia REST and Retool)
API Tools
100 100%
0% 0
No Code
0 0%
100% 100
Developer Tools
52 52%
48% 48
APIs
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Insomnia REST and Retool

Insomnia REST Reviews

Top 10 HTTP Client and Web Debugging Proxy Tools (2023)
Insomnia REST is the best alternative for Postman. It has more than 350 open-source plugins, plus GraphQL built-in with multiple protocol support. Since GraphQL is an added value, you can fully automate the entire lifecycle of APIs, build and debug them efficiently and with ease.
15 Best Postman Alternatives for Automated API Testing [2022 Updated]
Insomnia by Kong enables you to deliver high-quality APIs through collaboration. This postman alternative also includes testing suites, which allow you to create functional tests and centralize APIs. With this platform’s streamlined API client, sending GraphQL, REST, and SOAP requests are simple. Defining variables such as authentication credentials allows you to manage...
Source: testsigma.com

Retool Reviews

React UI Components Libraries: Our Top Picks for 2023
Retool offers extensive documentation and support. Its support is available on its Discourse forum, Slack (if you are a Retool power user), Intercom for live chat, and dedicated support for enterprise customers.
Source: kinsta.com
ILLA Cloud vs. Retool vs. Bubble - Unveiling the Best Low-Code Platforms
In the quest for the best low-code platform, Retool, Bubble, and ILLA Cloud all offer unique features and capabilities. While Retool shines with its self-hosted option and Bubble contributes to the open-source community, ILLA Cloud stands out as a powerful and flexible low-code platform. With its comprehensive feature set, affordable pricing models, and self-hosted...
Top 9 Low-Code Tools for 2023 for low-code development
Retool is a powerful low-code platform that enables developers to build internal tools and apps with ease. It offers a drag-and-drop interface and a wide range of pre-built components for seamless development. Retool integrates with various data sources and external services, allowing users to fetch data, perform calculations, and display results in real-time. Its...
Superblock vs Retool: A Comprehensive Comparison for Low-code development Platforms
Retool caters to a diverse audience, including developers, product managers, and business professionals. Developers benefit from Retool's low-code capabilities, allowing them to build applications quickly without sacrificing customization. Product managers can leverage Retool to streamline internal workflows and enable teams to be more productive. Business professionals can...
Top React component libraries (2021 edition)
Style editors — Style editors are available across all Retool plans and allow you to customize your Retool components within the Retool UI by editing the style properties (e.g., color, border-radius) of any component.
Source: retool.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Insomnia REST might be a bit more popular than Retool. We know about 121 links to it since March 2021 and only 89 links to Retool. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Insomnia REST mentions (121)

  • The Best Alternatives to Postman for API Testing
    To get started with Insomnia, download it from the official website, install it, and create a new request by selecting the appropriate HTTP method and entering your endpoint URL. - Source: dev.to / 28 days ago
  • Building a RESTful API with Node.js and Express
    Use tools like Postman or Insomnia to test the API endpoints and ensure they behave as expected. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • Make your Azure OpenAI apps compliant with RBAC
    We will be performing all of the authentication requests manually, however for testing purposes, you might want to use an API testing tool such as Postman or Insomnia. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • Local automation
    For a very long time, the go-to tool was curl. Great, always available command line tool. Unfortunately, there is one small issue. It’s hard to keep requests and collect them in collections, it’s great for one-time shots or debugging, but for constant working with API could be painful. To solve it, I started working with tools like Postman/Insomnia. Then eh... Strange licensing model, or changes which occurred... - Source: dev.to / 4 months ago
  • Tools that Make Me Productive as a Software Engineer
    At first, I used Postman for testing APIs because it had a lot of features. But I switched to Insomnia because it was easier to use and kept everything organized. The big problem with Insomnia was that it deleted all my saved work when it made me create an account to keep using it. - Source: dev.to / 4 months ago
View more

Retool mentions (89)

  • The End of Airplane.dev
    I am building https://github.com/claceio/clace and https://retool.com/, allow automation of operational tasks through a web interface while also allowing fully custom web apps. Clace also works great for running simple web apps locally. Building and deploying a web app should be as easy and common for backend engineers as creating a CLI app is. - Source: Hacker News / 4 months ago
  • FastUI: Build Better UIs Faster
    This seems to mainly be useful for spinning up quick and dirty internal tools. But for that use-case, isn't it easier to use something visual and established like Retool (https://retool.com/) or that generates nice react code, like MUI Toolpad (https://mui.com/toolpad/)? - Source: Hacker News / 4 months ago
  • Internal tools often make bad startup ideas
    There are obvious counterexamples, like https://retool.com, which is a successful company with solid revenue and multi-B valuation. > software engineers — who are often influencers in a purchase decision — are strongly incentivized to build instead of buy Regardless of what software engineers would rather do, pressure from real users trumps pressure from internal users. This especially true in startups, whose... - Source: Hacker News / 5 months ago
  • YC: Requests for Startups
    I submitted an application for w24 that fits in the "Developer tools inspired by existing internal tools" category but wasn't accepted. I suspect my pitch probably needed work, and I also haven't started building at all yet and submitted as a solo-founder which it seems has less chance of being accepted. Here's the pitch and some details, in case anyone else is interested in the idea: > Supportal uses AI to... - Source: Hacker News / 5 months ago
  • A list of SaaS, PaaS and IaaS offerings that have free tiers of interest to devops and infradev
    ReTool — Low-code platform for building internal applications. Retool is highly hackable. If you can write it with JavaScript and an API, you can make it in Retool. The free tier allows up to five users per month, unlimited apps and API connections. - Source: dev.to / 5 months ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Insomnia REST and Retool, you can also consider the following products

Postman - The Collaboration Platform for API Development

Bubble.io - Building tech is slow and expensive. Bubble is the most powerful no-code platform for creating digital products.

Hoppscotch - Open source API development ecosystem

Appsmith - Appsmith is an open source web framework for building internal tools, admin panels, dashboards, and workflows.

Paw.cloud - Paw is a REST client for Mac.

Airtable - Airtable works like a spreadsheet but gives you the power of a database to organize anything. Sign up for free.