6 ms·

I have a Paw license and recently I started using Insomnia instead: https://insomnia.rest/ https://insomnia.rest/ I find Paw's project management very annoying

I have a Paw license and recently I started using Insomnia instead: https://insomnia.rest/ https://insomnia.rest/ I find Paw's project management very annoying. It assumes that I am working on some project and wants me to organise everything like that. Fine, lets do it, so where are my projects? They are hidden in some dropdown that you can have fun finding. Insomnia is much cleaner and more to the point.

mcescalante 9y ago
Other reasons that I also like Insomnia (I've used Paw as well): - Cross platform - Simpler use for non-experts - No need for pro (paid subscription) for my needs, so it's completely free - Feels nicer than all of the browser "REST explorer" plugins
- thsowers 9y ago
  Agree on these points as well, also love that it's open source[0] [0]: https://github.com/getinsomnia/insomnia https://github.com/getinsomnia/insomnia
- thejosh 9y ago
  Haven't used paw, but agreed with above about Insomnia, and: - GraphQL support is pretty decent - Copy as CURL is awesome
  - gschier 9y ago
    Don't forget the ability to paste a curl command into the url to import it!
    - kevinastone 9y ago
      paw has both these features (export to curl or httpie and import from curl)
      - mosselman 9y ago
        And it costs $50. Also, I am sure that many people know that Paw is a good tool. It is just expensive and I don't like the UX.
cyberferret 9y ago
I was on the verge of buying a licence for Paw a couple of months ago, but discovered Insomnia, and been using that instead. (Formerly used Postman before that). To me, the functionality of Paw and Insomnia seem very similar, so the $50 licence price deterred me from purchasing Paw. If Paw was closer to the $20 mark, I might have still bought it to have in my arsenal of tools 'just in case'. My rationale is that if there was nothing else on the market with any equivalent functionality, then $50 for Paw is a no brainer. But when there are other competitive product with equal (or greater) feature sets for free, then the pricing works against it.
- _pdp_ 9y ago
  No need for a license for https://rest.secapps.com https://rest.secapps.com and we have all features of Paw.
  - mosselman 9y ago
    I am sorry, but design is a feature as well and you have that strongly against you. I don't see myself happily using your app over something like Insomnia or Paw.
    - _pdp_ 9y ago
      Thanks for the feedback. Theming is coming soon. Do you mean design in terms of visuals or design in terms of layout?
      - mosselman 9y ago
        For one, I don't like that it is in the browser. I don't like the buttons on the left that are icons with no text or tooltip, I have no idea what they do. I don't like that I have to type the request verb (GET, POST, etc). The tool should help me with suggestions as they are finite. It is a shame I have to also type in the HTTP/1.1 section, again suggestions would work better. Can I create multiple requests and switch between them quickly? I usually switch through a few. There is no feedback when I press the play button, I have no idea if that is what makes requests, there is no tooltip. Also, you say that you have all of paw's features. How do I do dynamic values in the url? How do I make and manage oAuth requests? Update: I can't make any requests it seems. That would seem an important feature.
theptip 9y ago
Insomnia looks nice, but by default it does not format URLs as links, so in a HATEOAS API you can't follow links. Am I just missing a setting here? Seems like this is a fairly big omission, Postman even supports copying over your headers (e.g. auth token) when you follow a link.
- gschier 9y ago
  Insomnia founder here. It now does format links but it opens them in your default browser instead of making a new request. That's definitely on the to-do list. Also, if you want it sooner, Insomnia is open source so it's possible to help grow the project. I think the only other app that's open source is Advanced REST Client but it's still a Chrome app (I think).
  - theptip 9y ago
    Thanks for the reply, and for the good work!
dsgfhasgjklas 9y ago
What differentiates Insomnia from Postman? Both are non-native electron apps.
- gschier 9y ago
  There are so many differences it's impossible to list them. In general, Postman focuses on having every feature under the sun (integration testing, mock APIs, etc) whereas Insomnia focuses on the core of just being an HTTP client with additional helpers to be more productive. The result being that Insomnia is not suitable for as many use cases but is has a better user experience because it's more focused. Insomnia is also open source software. You should really try them both to figure out which one best suites you. P.S. I'm the developer of Insomnia.
  - jaquers 9y ago
    Totes. Another issue I've found (at least with the browser extension flavor), is that even though it is a separate window, Cmd+Tab switching between apps is totally broken by Postman. The Postman window will completely take over your Chrome instance. Also, I'm glad I found you! Long-time user of Paw, but going to make the switch to Insomnia. Question, can I just type a JS object into request body and you stringify the JSON for me? Is that something you would accept as a PR if not?
    - gschier 9y ago
      I'd be happy to accept a PR. There's actually already an issue for that too. https://github.com/getinsomnia/insomnia/issues/407 https://github.com/getinsomnia/insomnia/issues/407
- vosper 9y ago
  I just switched to Insomnia because of a bug in Postman, where it wouldn't pick up changes in the body of an HTTP POST and would use something that had been sent previously. I was able to see that the data received by the server was previous values from the text field. If I cloned the request into a new tab it started working. It happened repeatedly - at some point after making edits to the body it would just get stuck and not send what was in the editor. So I switched because I can't use an app with such issues with its core functionality. I also disliked Postman's UI, but it wasn't a deal broker. I'm not in love with Insomnia's UI, either, but I like Insomnia because it reliably sends the right request.
izaacz 9y ago
I'm using Insomnia too, just because its license.
gschier 9y ago
Thanks for mentioning this! Simplicity and ease of use is exactly why I started building Insomnia. Awesome to see that others agree.
- JustinBrown 9y ago
  Really love Insomnia. Also really appreciate the account syncing available with pro.
urda 9y ago
I'm a longtime Paw user, but I'll be checking this out myself!
Razengan 9y ago
> insomnia.rest One of those moments where you kick yourself for not being able to come up with these sorts of names.
- jacurtis 9y ago
  Haha just visit this page: https://insomnia.rest/download/ https://insomnia.rest/download/ > "Download Insomnia so you can finally `GET` some `REST`" I actually laughed out loud at that one.
crispinb 9y ago
Just checked out Insomnia. From a first run through with a few endpoints it does seem beautifully done. I have been dismissive of electron-based apps in the past. VS.Code started to wear that down - I never took to using it because IntelliJ & emacs cover my bases, but I played with it enough to see its excellence. Now there's Insomnia. Perhaps I need to rethink my attitude to electron apps. I am uncomfortable with their size (eg. Insomnia @ 170MB), but given the quality that's clearly possible, I'm starting to distrust that discomfort.
- h1d 9y ago
  And what exactly makes you uncomfortable having 170MB sitting? OS must be crazy for you.
  - crispinb 9y ago
    It seems wasteful on space (when I have fancier native apps using much less). I'm not sure it matters that much in practise (though it did recently, before I upgraded my laptop SSD size). But neither am I 100% comfortable with giving comparatively minor apps carte blanche to use as much disk space as they wish. As I say, I'm unresolved on the matter. Really nice electron apps like Insomnia are prompting a rethink.
max23_ 9y ago
Agree. Switched to using Insomnia from Postman since it was showcased in HN.
tbrock 9y ago
Agree whole heartedly, bought a Paw license and never use it. I use insomnia instead. It's cross platform like postman so I can use it on my linux box and recommend it to all of our team members and it's not a pain in the ass. Surprisingly I thought I'd place a lot of value on the native mac look and feel for this app but it really doesn't make a large difference.
- enraged_camel 9y ago
  Yeah, Paw is a great piece of software, but the fact that it's macOS-only is a very severe failing IMO. I bought a license and ended up switching to Windows a few months later due to circumstances outside my control, and now I regret having paid for Paw.
fredsted 9y ago
Insomnia doesn't even come close to Paw due to the amount of features Paw has that Insomnia doesn't. Also, Projects are just Paw files. Inside the files you can group and subgroup requests, too. Unless you meant something else?
- mosselman 9y ago
  That might be true. For me Paw's UI doesn't help me (a simple user vs a power user) to work pleasantly. I am forced in Paw to deal with Projects, difficulty to rename requests, etc.
  - fredsted 9y ago
    Yeah, it feels to me that Paw is designed to be a full-blown IDE for HTTP requests, and of course sometimes you just want Notepad. By the way, you can double-click a request to rename it :)
  - mrcarrot 9y ago
    As a self-confessed Paw fanboy, I'm kinda baffled by this. It seems a bit like complaining that you're forced to work with spreadsheets in Excel or text documents in Word. You need _somewhere_ to put the requests, and even if you don't want to have one Paw project per, err... project, you can just create one and then use it for everything and it'll even re-open it automatically every time you open the app. And, if it helps, you can rename a request in Paw by clicking on its name in the sidebar while you have the request selected or clicking on the name where it shows up as a title in the Description panel in the middle of the screen.
- sa2ajj 9y ago
  > Insomnia doesn't even come close to Paw due to the amount of features Paw has that Insomnia doesn't. Can you list some of the important for you features that Insomnia lacks? (I'm not affiliated w/ Insomnia however I'm curious what makes Paw stand out to you.)
  - fredsted 9y ago
azr79 9y ago
this is clearly an ad for insomnia, in no way this shitty web app is better than PAW, which a native app, fully integrated with macOS and with features you didn't even know you needed, so please cut the bullshit with some weak excuses about some inexistent project management issues.
- jsjohnst 9y ago
  You might want to review the rules of HN.

mcescalante 9y ago

Other reasons that I also like Insomnia (I've used Paw as well): - Cross platform - Simpler use for non-experts - No need for pro (paid subscription) for my needs, so it's completely free - Feels nicer than all of the browser "REST explorer" plugins

thsowers 9y ago
Agree on these points as well, also love that it's open source[0] [0]: https://github.com/getinsomnia/insomnia https://github.com/getinsomnia/insomnia
thejosh 9y ago
Haven't used paw, but agreed with above about Insomnia, and: - GraphQL support is pretty decent - Copy as CURL is awesome
- gschier 9y ago
  Don't forget the ability to paste a curl command into the url to import it!
  - kevinastone 9y ago
    paw has both these features (export to curl or httpie and import from curl)
    - mosselman 9y ago
      And it costs $50. Also, I am sure that many people know that Paw is a good tool. It is just expensive and I don't like the UX.

cyberferret 9y ago

I was on the verge of buying a licence for Paw a couple of months ago, but discovered Insomnia, and been using that instead. (Formerly used Postman before that). To me, the functionality of Paw and Insomnia seem very similar, so the $50 licence price deterred me from purchasing Paw. If Paw was closer to the $20 mark, I might have still bought it to have in my arsenal of tools 'just in case'. My rationale is that if there was nothing else on the market with any equivalent functionality, then $50 for Paw is a no brainer. But when there are other competitive product with equal (or greater) feature sets for free, then the pricing works against it.

_pdp_ 9y ago
No need for a license for https://rest.secapps.com https://rest.secapps.com and we have all features of Paw.
- mosselman 9y ago
  I am sorry, but design is a feature as well and you have that strongly against you. I don't see myself happily using your app over something like Insomnia or Paw.
  - _pdp_ 9y ago
    Thanks for the feedback. Theming is coming soon. Do you mean design in terms of visuals or design in terms of layout?
    - mosselman 9y ago
      For one, I don't like that it is in the browser. I don't like the buttons on the left that are icons with no text or tooltip, I have no idea what they do. I don't like that I have to type the request verb (GET, POST, etc). The tool should help me with suggestions as they are finite. It is a shame I have to also type in the HTTP/1.1 section, again suggestions would work better. Can I create multiple requests and switch between them quickly? I usually switch through a few. There is no feedback when I press the play button, I have no idea if that is what makes requests, there is no tooltip. Also, you say that you have all of paw's features. How do I do dynamic values in the url? How do I make and manage oAuth requests? Update: I can't make any requests it seems. That would seem an important feature.

theptip 9y ago

Insomnia looks nice, but by default it does not format URLs as links, so in a HATEOAS API you can't follow links. Am I just missing a setting here? Seems like this is a fairly big omission, Postman even supports copying over your headers (e.g. auth token) when you follow a link.

gschier 9y ago
Insomnia founder here. It now does format links but it opens them in your default browser instead of making a new request. That's definitely on the to-do list. Also, if you want it sooner, Insomnia is open source so it's possible to help grow the project. I think the only other app that's open source is Advanced REST Client but it's still a Chrome app (I think).
- theptip 9y ago
  Thanks for the reply, and for the good work!

dsgfhasgjklas 9y ago

What differentiates Insomnia from Postman? Both are non-native electron apps.

gschier 9y ago
There are so many differences it's impossible to list them. In general, Postman focuses on having every feature under the sun (integration testing, mock APIs, etc) whereas Insomnia focuses on the core of just being an HTTP client with additional helpers to be more productive. The result being that Insomnia is not suitable for as many use cases but is has a better user experience because it's more focused. Insomnia is also open source software. You should really try them both to figure out which one best suites you. P.S. I'm the developer of Insomnia.
- jaquers 9y ago
  Totes. Another issue I've found (at least with the browser extension flavor), is that even though it is a separate window, Cmd+Tab switching between apps is totally broken by Postman. The Postman window will completely take over your Chrome instance. Also, I'm glad I found you! Long-time user of Paw, but going to make the switch to Insomnia. Question, can I just type a JS object into request body and you stringify the JSON for me? Is that something you would accept as a PR if not?
  - gschier 9y ago
    I'd be happy to accept a PR. There's actually already an issue for that too. https://github.com/getinsomnia/insomnia/issues/407 https://github.com/getinsomnia/insomnia/issues/407
vosper 9y ago
I just switched to Insomnia because of a bug in Postman, where it wouldn't pick up changes in the body of an HTTP POST and would use something that had been sent previously. I was able to see that the data received by the server was previous values from the text field. If I cloned the request into a new tab it started working. It happened repeatedly - at some point after making edits to the body it would just get stuck and not send what was in the editor. So I switched because I can't use an app with such issues with its core functionality. I also disliked Postman's UI, but it wasn't a deal broker. I'm not in love with Insomnia's UI, either, but I like Insomnia because it reliably sends the right request.

izaacz 9y ago

I'm using Insomnia too, just because its license.

gschier 9y ago

Thanks for mentioning this! Simplicity and ease of use is exactly why I started building Insomnia. Awesome to see that others agree.

JustinBrown 9y ago
Really love Insomnia. Also really appreciate the account syncing available with pro.

urda 9y ago

I'm a longtime Paw user, but I'll be checking this out myself!

Razengan 9y ago

> insomnia.rest One of those moments where you kick yourself for not being able to come up with these sorts of names.

jacurtis 9y ago
Haha just visit this page: https://insomnia.rest/download/ https://insomnia.rest/download/ > "Download Insomnia so you can finally `GET` some `REST`" I actually laughed out loud at that one.

crispinb 9y ago

Just checked out Insomnia. From a first run through with a few endpoints it does seem beautifully done. I have been dismissive of electron-based apps in the past. VS.Code started to wear that down - I never took to using it because IntelliJ & emacs cover my bases, but I played with it enough to see its excellence. Now there's Insomnia. Perhaps I need to rethink my attitude to electron apps. I am uncomfortable with their size (eg. Insomnia @ 170MB), but given the quality that's clearly possible, I'm starting to distrust that discomfort.

h1d 9y ago
And what exactly makes you uncomfortable having 170MB sitting? OS must be crazy for you.
- crispinb 9y ago
  It seems wasteful on space (when I have fancier native apps using much less). I'm not sure it matters that much in practise (though it did recently, before I upgraded my laptop SSD size). But neither am I 100% comfortable with giving comparatively minor apps carte blanche to use as much disk space as they wish. As I say, I'm unresolved on the matter. Really nice electron apps like Insomnia are prompting a rethink.

max23_ 9y ago

Agree. Switched to using Insomnia from Postman since it was showcased in HN.

tbrock 9y ago

Agree whole heartedly, bought a Paw license and never use it. I use insomnia instead. It's cross platform like postman so I can use it on my linux box and recommend it to all of our team members and it's not a pain in the ass. Surprisingly I thought I'd place a lot of value on the native mac look and feel for this app but it really doesn't make a large difference.

enraged_camel 9y ago
Yeah, Paw is a great piece of software, but the fact that it's macOS-only is a very severe failing IMO. I bought a license and ended up switching to Windows a few months later due to circumstances outside my control, and now I regret having paid for Paw.

fredsted 9y ago

Insomnia doesn't even come close to Paw due to the amount of features Paw has that Insomnia doesn't. Also, Projects are just Paw files. Inside the files you can group and subgroup requests, too. Unless you meant something else?

mosselman 9y ago
That might be true. For me Paw's UI doesn't help me (a simple user vs a power user) to work pleasantly. I am forced in Paw to deal with Projects, difficulty to rename requests, etc.
- fredsted 9y ago
  Yeah, it feels to me that Paw is designed to be a full-blown IDE for HTTP requests, and of course sometimes you just want Notepad. By the way, you can double-click a request to rename it :)
- mrcarrot 9y ago
  As a self-confessed Paw fanboy, I'm kinda baffled by this. It seems a bit like complaining that you're forced to work with spreadsheets in Excel or text documents in Word. You need _somewhere_ to put the requests, and even if you don't want to have one Paw project per, err... project, you can just create one and then use it for everything and it'll even re-open it automatically every time you open the app. And, if it helps, you can rename a request in Paw by clicking on its name in the sidebar while you have the request selected or clicking on the name where it shows up as a title in the Description panel in the middle of the screen.
sa2ajj 9y ago
> Insomnia doesn't even come close to Paw due to the amount of features Paw has that Insomnia doesn't. Can you list some of the important for you features that Insomnia lacks? (I'm not affiliated w/ Insomnia however I'm curious what makes Paw stand out to you.)
- fredsted 9y ago

azr79 9y ago

this is clearly an ad for insomnia, in no way this shitty web app is better than PAW, which a native app, fully integrated with macOS and with features you didn't even know you needed, so please cut the bullshit with some weak excuses about some inexistent project management issues.

jsjohnst 9y ago
You might want to review the rules of HN.