15 Best Postman Alternatives You Should Know

For nearly a decade, Postman has been a popular and effective API testing tool. It handles critical API development tasks, such as design, documentation, and testing, under one roof. However, despite a stronghold in the testing community, Postman’s reputation is seeing a decline due to significant changes either within the tool or in its pricing model. 

Many businesses are looking elsewhere for a worthy successor to Postman that aptly tests different API types.

This blog lists the best 15 Postman alternatives, which support various API testing types and offer features equivalent to Postman, if not more.

Postman Alternatives Comparison Table

Tool	Platform Supported	Scriptless/Script-based	Environment Support	API Monitoring	CLI	Collaboration	API Development	Pricing
Postman	Cross-platform	Scriptless	Web, Mobile	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Free, Paid
Testsigma	Web-based	Scriptless	Web, Mobile	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Subscription
JMeter	Cross-platform	Script-based	Web, Mobile	Limited	Yes	Limited	No	Free, Paid
ReadyAPI	Windows, macOS	Scriptless/Script-based	Web, Mobile, IoT	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Subscription
SoapUI	Cross-platform	Script-based	Web, Mobile, IoT	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Free, Paid
Tricentis Tosca	Windows	Scriptless/Script-based	Web, Mobile, Desktop	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Subscription
Karate Labs	Cross-platform	Script-based	Web, Mobile	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Free, Paid
RapidAPI	Web-based	Scriptless	Web, Mobile	Yes	No	Yes	No	Free, Paid
Insomnia	Cross-platform	Script-based	Web, Mobile	Limited	Yes	Yes	No	Free, Paid
Swagger	Web-based	Scriptless	Web, Mobile	No	No	Yes	Yes	Free, Paid
Apigee	Cloud-based	Script-based	Web, Mobile	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Subscription
Assertible	Web-based	Scriptless	Web, Mobile	Yes	No	Yes	No	Free, Paid
Akana	Cloud-based	Script-based	Web, Mobile	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Subscription
Firecamp	Cross-platform	Script-based	Web, Mobile	Yes	No	Yes	No	Free, Paid
LoadNinja	Web-based	Scriptless/Script-based	Web, Mobile	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Subscription
Hoppscotch	Cross-platform	Scriptless/Script-based	Web, Mobile	Yes	No	Yes	No	Free, Paid

15 Best Postman Alternatives List

Here’s a detailed look at the Postman alternatives that have recently made news in the testing industry. Some are new API testing tools, while others have been around for some time and have a significant customer base.

Testsigma

Testsigma is an end-to-end automated API testing platform that redefines API testing without needing frameworks, setups, or coding. It validates different REST API methods (GET, PUT, POST, DELETE, HEAD) with separate tests or in one integrated test and completely customizes API call sequences to enhance workflow and prevent future errors.

What sets Testsigma apart is its ability to run parameterized REST API tests. You can easily verify multiple scenarios by testing APIs with multiple test data sets. To do all this, you don’t need to make script changes every time by storing parameters as data profiles. 

What’s more is that Testsigma helps you save time by validating APIs in real-time, improve test coverage with data-driven testing, and run API tests continuously throughout your release cycle.

All of this makes Testsigma an attractive Postman alternative for companies looking for a no-code platform.

Key Features

• API Support: Comprehensive support for testing various types of APIs, including RESTful and GraphQL APIs.
• Scripting: Scriptless approach to API testing, almost completely eliminating the need for manual testing.
• API testing: Facilitates API test case creation, including API endpoints, parameters, headers, and expected responses without writing code.
• Environments: Allows testers to define multiple testing environments, such as development, staging, and production, and configure API endpoints accordingly.
• Import: Testers can import existing API test scripts or configurations from various sources, such as Swagger/OpenAPI specifications or Postman collections. 
• Export: Supports exporting API test results and artifacts in various formats, including HTML, CSV, and PDF.

Pros

• Cloud and local systems are supported for API testing.
• Easily integrate API tests with functionality within the same flow.
• Save time and resources by creating tests using pre-defined NLPs that run even complex scenarios.
• Automatically capture specific run time data from your API responses and reuse them in subsequent tests.
• Extend test coverage to UI and API layer by creating a wide range of API tests, including unit, integration, and end-to-end tests.
• Enjoy easy reporting analytics and auto-healing suggestions.
• Easily collaborate and share test reports with stakeholders and integrate test results into other reporting and analytics tools.

Cons

• Testsigma supports API testing but does not support API development.

Pricing

Pro and Enterprise plans are available. Request Pricing.

JMeter

A project by Apache, JMeter is a load and performance testing tool with a focus on testing web applications. It is open-source and Java-based tool, which makes it a fan-favorite of testers who rely on multiple platforms that have a JVM as well as Windows, Linux, or macOS. 

Key Features

• Popular for checking an application under high load.
• JMeter supports testing various API types, including REST, SOAP, HTTP, FTP, JDBC, LDAP, JMS, and more.
• Comes with the capability to create complex test scenarios by writing test scripts in Groovy or Beanshell.
• It is specifically designed for testing APIs and offers features like assertions to validate responses, parameterization to simulate multiple users or data sets, and response time monitoring to measure API performance under various load conditions.
• Allows users to define and manage multiple test environments, allowing them to simulate and work on different network conditions, server configurations, and user behavior.
• Provides the ability to import existing API definitions or test plans from formats like Swagger/OpenAPI, Postman, or HAR (HTTP Archive).
• Supports exporting test results and configurations in various formats such as CSV, XML, or HTML reports.

Pros

• Is open-source and offers cross-platform compatibility testing.
• Can handle multiple protocols, such as HTTP, SOAP, REST, HTTPS, and FTP.
• Offers detailed reports and graphical representations of test results.
• Supports distributed testing, which allows for multiple JMeter instances to be configured to work in parallel or together, thereby, simulating a higher load on the test application.
• Comes with a huge and reliable community of testers that keep the software updated and guide beginners through the complex testing challenges.

Cons

• It can be demanding to learn the tool for beginners.
• Running large-scale tests can be resource-intensive.
• While it supports many protocols, it may not cover some niche protocols.

ReadyAPI

ReadyAPI is a popular low-code API testing developed by SmartBear. This Postman Alternative enables testing teams to create, manage, and execute automation tests, including security, functional, and load, thus accelerating API testing and quality for agile and DevOps teams.

Key Features

• Helps create low-code, data-driven, functional API tests.
• Can run and test a wide range of APIs, including REST, SOAP, GraphQL, WebSocket, and more.
• Supports importing API definitions like OpenAPI/Swagger or AsyncAPI and testing and recording live API traffic.
• Although low-code, it has support for scripting languages like Groovy and JavaScript.
• Offers features such as assertions, data-driven testing, and parameterization.
• Allows you to remove dependencies in the testing pipeline by virtualizing RESTful, SOAP, TCP, and JMS web services.

Pros

• Add complex assertion logic without writing any code.
• Integrates seamlessly with multiple third-party tools, such as Jenkins, GitHub, Azure, DevOps, and TeamCity.
• Backed by SmartBear, which provides excellent support and resources.
• Has an intuitive interface, making it accessible to both developers and testers.

Cons

• ReadyAPI is a commercial tool, and the full version can be expensive.
• Running large-scale tests can require significant system resources.

SoupUI

SoapUI is an open-source web service testing application owned by SmartBear. 

Many confuse SoapUI as similar to ReadyAPI, but in reality, ReadyAPI is an advanced API testing platform, while SoapUI is one component of ReadyAPI.

The primary focus of SoapUI is testing SOAP-based web services. But it also supports RESTful APIs. SoapUI provides features for creating, managing, and executing functional tests on APIs.

Key Features

• Create and run the most complex tests by simply dragging and dropping test creation.
• Supports a variety of API protocols including SOAP, REST, GraphQL, JMS, and more.
• offers scripting capabilities using languages like Groovy and JavaScript.
• Allows users to write custom scripts to automate tasks, manipulate data, and add dynamic behavior to their API tests.
• Offers features such as assertions, parameterization, and data-driven testing.
• Provides API mocking abilities to mimic real web services without waiting for them to be ready or accessible.
• Enables users to import API definitions and test cases from various sources such as WSDL, Swagger, RAML, and Postman.

Pros

• Useful for developers and testers to cover the complete testing spectrum, including functional, load, security, and mock tests.
• Both SOAP and REST APIs are available for testing.
• Compared to Postman, it offers a broader range of API testing features like SOAP testing, API discovery, automated assertion creation, templated data insertion, and open-source standards.

Cons

• UI needs some modifications to improve the intuitiveness of the platform.
• It does not save the history of executed tests.
• It may have performance issues when running complex tests.

Tricentis Tosca

Tricentis Tosca is an enterprise-level end-to-end automation testing tool that also offers support for creating and running codeless, model-based API testing. The API scan tool reduces the dependency on coding, which is easier for even non-technical users.

As compared to Postman, Tosca runs a high number of API tests (nearly 200) within one minute and provides data-driven testing options.

Key Features

• Allows the reuse of API test service virtualization for agile development.
• Enables migration of SoapUI projects to Tosca API testing for reuse.
• Provides support for testing APIs, including RESTful, SOAP, GraphQL, and more. 
• While codeless test creation is available, it offers scripting capabilities using languages like VBScript and JavaScript.
• Offers API testing features like assertions, parameterization, and data-driven testing.
• Allows users to import API definitions, test cases, and data from various sources such as Swagger, RAML, WSDL, and Postman.
• Supports exporting test results, reports, and configurations in various formats including HTML, PDF, JUnit, and Excel. 

Pros

• Supports shift-left testing approach to enable testers to test and ship the modules faster.
• Runs hundreds of API testing in a minute as opposed to hours to execute UI tests.
• Improves agile collaboration between developers and testers by converting tests into business-readable format.

Cons

• Tricentis Tosca is a premium tool and may be costly for smaller organizations.
• It comes with a learning curve; mastering all of its features can take time.

Karate Labs

An open-source test automation platform, Karate Labs unifies API testing with API performance testing, API mocks, and UI testing. This Postman Alternative relies on natural language to create tests, making it easier for non-programmers to build and run API tests. And if you are a team that does not work with Java, Karate Labs has the cross-platform stand-alone executable available.

Key Features

• Assertions and HTML reports are built-in.
• Java API exists for testers who want to programmatically integrate Karate’s automation and data-assertion capabilities.
• Supports testing of various types of APIs including RESTful, SOAP, and GraphQL.
• Utilizes a built-in scripting language based on Gherkin syntax to write and maintain test scenarios, i.e, it uses behavior-driven development syntax for creating tests.
• Offers features such as assertions, parameterization, behavior-driven development syntax, and data-driven testing.
• Allows users to define and manage multiple test environments to simulate different deployment scenarios.
• Offers support for importing API definitions and test data from various sources, including Swagger, RAML, and JSON files.

Pros

• You can run parallel test cases to improve test coverage.
• Helps save time by reusing existing test cases for new ones.
• Easy to install.

Cons

• Primarily designed for API testing and may not cover other testing types.
• While simpler than some tools, it may still require some learning.

RapidAPI

RapidAPI, formerly Paw, is an advanced API tool with features designed explicitly for Mac. Its primary function is to test and describe APIs, along with composing requests, inspecting server responses, and exporting API definitions. It also allows you to synchronize API test configurations.

Key Features

• A full-featured HTTP client to test and describe the APIs you build or use.
• Easy to use interface for visually building APIs and describing each parameter.
• Makes use of textual descriptions, typing, and constraints for API descriptions.
• Supports both OAuth 1.0 and 2.0, ensuring secure API access and authentication.
• Enables users to import API definitions and specifications from external sources, such as OpenAPI (formerly Swagger) documents or JSON files.
• Offers features for exporting API usage data, analytics, and reports for analysis and reporting purposes. 

Pros

• Easy-to-use interface.
• A full-featured visual editor available to simply API design and management.
• More steady and efficient than the competitors.

Cons

• It’s not free to use.
• Only available on macOS.

Insomnia

Insomnia is a collaborative API testing platform that allows users to design, debug, test, and mock APIs on Cloud, locally, or on Git. 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 made simple.

Key Features

• Supports multiple API protocols, such as HTTP, REST, GraphQL, gRPC, SOAP, or WebSockets under one roof.
• Supports importing API definitions and test data from various sources such as Swagger, RAML, Postman, and HAR files.
• Popular for fostering strong collaboration between teams by synchronizing files and projects between devices.
• Integrate with CI/CD tools for continuous development and testing.
• Provides features for API testing, such as assertions, dynamic variables, and response validation.

Pros

• Has a developer-friendly interface to create and debug API tests easily.
• Comes with built-in automation capabilities and an extensive third-party plug-in system.
• The intuitive UI enables users to easily create APIs without spending much time on coding.
• It is open-source.

Cons

• Does not have a history feature to store executed test case information.

Swagger

Swagger is yet another SmartBear supported product in the list that specializes in API testing, including the functional, security, and performance testing of the application. It simplifies the analysis of the API data received from a request in order to easily assess the API value all in one place. And it is open-source with no dependencies, making it ideal for running locally or on cloud.

Get here the detailed comparison of Postman vs Swagger.

Key Features

• Makes it easier for the users to visualize APIs to identify the ones that fit your development requirements.
• Allows you to store APIs history for later use.
• The API mocking ability enables the simulation of API behavior before actual implementation, making it valuable for early-stage testing and prototyping.
• Provides comprehensive support for RESTful APIs to define API specifications using the OpenAPI Specification (OAS).
• Swagger Codegen generates server stubs and client Software Development Kits (SDKs) for any API.
• Supports API definitions import to validate schema rules, automatically generate assertions against endpoints, and inject real or synthetic data into parameters.

Pros

• Comes with detailed documentation for API testing.
• Has a user-friendly interface, enabling even non-developers to understand the tool.
• Allows multiple iterations of a definition privately before making a version publicly available.

Cons

• Lacks versatility in importing files.
• Needs better integration capabilities with third-party software.
• Does not have the feature to write test cases like Testsigma.

Apigee

Apigee is a popular platform for developing and managing APIs. It takes a varied approach compared to Postman by fronting services with a proxy layer to provide an abstraction or facade for the backend service APIs. The platform comprises two components—services and runtime. The former enables API creation, management, and deployment of proxies, and the latter is a collection of containerized runtime services.

Key Features

• Offers security, analytics, quotas, and rate restriction features.
• Gives access to the developer portal and the analytics services.
• Allows to change the backend services without interfering with or changing the public API.
• Supports various API protocols and standards, including REST, SOAP, GraphQL, and gRPC.
• Offers scripting capabilities through its Edge JavaScript policy to execute custom logic and transformations within API proxies.
• Provides importing capabilities of OpenAPI Specification (OAS) files, Swagger files, RAML files, WSDL files, and other API definitions.
• Can export API proxies, configurations, and reports in various formats, including YAML, JSON, XML, and CSV.

Pros

• Pay only for the services you use by Google.
• Comes with well-defined and reliable community support.

Cons

• Lack of mechanism to configure cache limit for particular APIs.
• Debugging is difficult.

Assertible

Assertible is an automated API testing tool that provides simple yet powerful assertions to test and monitor your APIs and websites. It supports various testing environments, including staging and production.

Key Features

• Automatically syncs API tests with the latest changes in specifications, such as requests, responses, parameters, and headers,
• Integrates with Github, Slack, Zapier, and PagerDuty.
• Automatically execute post-deployment smoke tests on the environment of your choice.
• Supports a wide range of APIs, including RESTful APIs, SOAP APIs, GraphQL APIs, and HTTP APIs.
• Supports webhooks for automated testing triggered by external events.
• Allows the import of existing API specifications, Postman collections, HAR files, and other formats.
• export test results, reports, logs, and configurations for sharing, analysis, and integration purposes in JSON, CSV, and HTML formats.

Pros

• Easy to set up and install.
• Customize test failure alerts for your whole team.
• Reduce time spent manually testing the API tests.

Cons 

• Primarily focused on API testing and may lack features for other types of testing.
• This may not be suitable for highly complex test scenarios.

Akana

Akana is an API creation, testing, and deployment platform in a single interface. It focuses on reducing security and compliance risks and manages the full API lifecycle for a single environment.

Key Features

• Allows API endpoints to coexist and be managed in the same API catalog.
• Supports managing and deploying APIs across various protocols and standards, including REST, SOAP, GraphQL, and OData.
• Defines API specifications, endpoints, operations, and data models using industry-standard formats such as OpenAPI Specification (OAS), RAML, and WSDL.
• Designs APIs using graphical point-and-click editor.
• Emphasizes API security, incorporating features like OAuth and OpenID Connect support.
• Comes ready with powerful API gateways.
• Offers built-in tools and features for API testing and validation, including functional testing, performance testing, security testing, and compliance testing

Pros

• Easy to import APIs in just a couple of clicks.
• Can be run on-premise and on the cloud as per your choice.
• One of the efficient and easy-to-use tools for end-to-end API management.

Cons

• Team management needs more improvement.
• Enhancements can be made in graphical orchestration services.

Firecamp

Firecamp is a worthy Postman alternative, which is clearly pointed out on its homepage. It is an open-source API testing tool to quickly build and validate APIs. The tool comes with features, such as API collection, API documentation, CI/CD integrations, and API playgrounds.

Key Features

• Can test WebSockets and GraphQL in addition to standard REST APIs.
• Accessible as a Chrome extension and a standalone application for Linux, Windows, and macOS.
• Allows testing and debugging of auth endpoints with a range of supported auths.
• Able to import API specifications, Postman collections, HAR files, and other formats into its platform.
• API Test Runner enables the visual running of API collections within the platform.
• Can generate code snippets for various programming languages to assist developers in using APIs.

Pros

• Import/Export is possible for the Firecamp Project or any other Specs.
• The history of API requests is stored.
• Built-in GraphQL explorer is available.

Cons

• Requests in several steps (chained) are not supported.
• There is no automatic schema loading.
• There is no editor auto-completion syntax.

LoadNinja

LoadNinja is a SmartBear product to run load tests. Yet, it is capable in managing and executing API tests and comprises a dedicated environment for creating, managing, and executing API tests. The API tests using LoadNinja are similar to its approach toward load testing—scriptless and record-and-play.

Key Features

• Can import API definitions from various formats such as OpenAPI Specification (OAS), Swagger, RAML, and Postman collections.
• Can simulate various API requests, including GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, and PATCH, using the record-and-playback feature, if necessary.
• Easily integrates API testing with load testing.
• Provides support for testing APIs, including RESTful APIs, SOAP APIs, GraphQL APIs, and WebSocket APIs.
• Allows import of API specifications, Postman collections, Swagger files, HAR files, and other formats.

Pros

• Reduces test creation and management time with its codeless approach.
• Seamlessly combines API testing with load testing without any complex integration.
• Comes with advanced reporting and analysis features.

Cons

• It is primarily a load testing tool with a limited focus on API testing.
• May not cover all the API protocols.
• Might come with a learning curve for testers trying to use the tool for API testing.

Hoppscotch

Hoppscotch is an open-source, integrated API testing platform with a focus on extensive community support and collaboration. It comes with a web client touted as an “online collaborative API playground,” allowing numerous developers or teams to construct, test, and exchange APIs.

Key Features

• Supports a wide range of APIs, including RESTful APIs, GraphQL APIs, and WebSocket APIs.
• The Environment and Variable features let users submit requests to APIs in multiple settings.
• Includes features for creating and executing API tests to validate endpoint functionality, request/response formats, and status codes.
• Users can customize headers and parameters to test various scenarios comprehensively.
• Imports API specifications, Postman collections, HAR files, and other formats.

Pros

• It is free to use and lightweight to run.
• Comes with great community support that actively maintains and updates the tool.
• Can be self-hosted.

Cons

• Does not have offline access.
• May come with a learning curve for advanced features.
• Does not fully support advanced performance testing, security testing, or compliance testing.

How to Select the Right Postman Alternative?

From among the numerous alternatives to Postman mentioned here, how would you choose the right one that suits your testing needs? The process involves carefully considering your project requirements and cost parameters.

Select the tool that covers API testing foremost and look at other testing types later on. Suppose you want the tool to also focus on security, UI, and performance, then pick the one that encompasses all of these facets together.

Next, don’t forget to take the scripting option into consideration. If you are a team of testers who does not want to spend time coding, choose a tool like Testsigma that comes with a low learning curve and codeless testing approach. For more complex and advanced API testing scenarios, go for the tool that allows writing test cases in your preferred language.

Lastly, also look at the ease of use, automation capabilities, integration and collaboration features, and pricing policy before settling on an option that truly works for your company.

Why Look for a Postman Alternative?

Although Postman is an effective and popular tool in the market for API testing, it still carries some limitations that make it replaceable.

For the most part, Postman’s primary design focus is on manual testing, which doesn’t shine in automated test validation. This deficiency can impact the consistency and stability of performance across various test scenarios. Plus, the limited scalability is also a concern when the number of collections, requests, environments, and variables grows. 

But there’s more.

Although the market is flooded with platforms that are promoting scriptless test case creation, there are still testers who prefer command line interface. Postman is a GUI-based tool that offers very limited CLI options.

Some of the other drawbacks, such as insufficient test maintenance features, restricted CI/CD support, finite collaboration options, and slight learning for advanced testing, make users look for alternatives.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Which is the Best Postman Alternative?

Ans: Alternative for Postman depends on the features you’re looking for. If you’re looking for a no-code feature, Testsigma is the best alternative. There are a lot of other amazing features in Testsigma like creating tests in NLPs.  Postman does not support a collection runner for Graphql, but Testsigma supports it.

2. Why Testsigma is the best alternative to Postman?

Ans: Testsigma offers both functional UI and API testing, which makes it the best alternative. You can also do Mobile app testing and test analysis in Testsigma which is not available in Postman.