Hoppscotch vs Stern

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted developer tools & git options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

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FeatureHoppscotchStern
CategoryDeveloper Tools & GitDeveloper Tools & Git
LicenseMITApache-2.0
LanguageTypeScriptGo
Setup difficultyEasyEasy
Min. RAM512 MB64 MB
Deploymentdocker, kubernetesbinary, source
GitHub stars★ 79,994★ 4,822
First released20192016
ReplacesPostman, Insomniakubectl logs

Why pick each one

Choose Hoppscotch if…

  • Released under the MIT license
  • Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Kubernetes-ready with Helm charts available
Hoppscotch details

Choose Stern if…

  • Released under the Apache-2.0 license
  • Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
  • Active community (4.8k GitHub stars)
  • Written in Go
Stern details

Frequently asked questions

Is Hoppscotch or Stern better?

Neither is universally better. Hoppscotch has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are Hoppscotch and Stern free and open-source?

Yes. Hoppscotch is licensed under MIT and Stern under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Hoppscotch and Stern with Docker?

Hoppscotch: yes. Stern: check the project docs for container support.

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