Hey friends 👋
This week, we're diving into the best free alternatives to POSTMAN that are perfect for open-source enthusiasts!
As many of you may already know, Postman is a popular platform for API development, and it offers a suite of tools that allow developers to design, test, and manage APIs.
It is a fundamental part of any developer's toolbox as it streamlines collaboration and simplifies each step of building an API, from initial design to final production. 🏗️
Exploring alternatives to Postman is an interesting theme, as other platforms provide tailored user experiences based on varying use cases. Lastly, the below tools are open-source and are completely free to use! ❤️
Speaking of open-source, at Quira, we have indexed hundreds of thousands of GitHub repos. You can filter by your language and topic of preference to find the right project for you. To access this free tool, sign up to Quira.sh. 🔮
[1] Hoppscotch
Hoppscotch has become a well-known option in this space. On top of being entirely free, it provides a very comprehensive suite of tools for API development and testing. Its real-time request and response interface allows for efficient debugging and development. Hoppscotch provides various protocols like WebSocket, GraphQL, and MQTT, expanding the testing capabilities beyond traditional REST API calls. 💪
Hoppscotch is also a lightweight PWA (Progressive Web App), which ensures that it's easily accessible and doesn't strain system resources (this is essential if you are working with multiple tools and applications).
About Hoppscotch:
Comprehensive Protocols Support: Includes
WebSocket,Server-Sent Events,Socket.IO,MQTT, andGraphQL.Advanced Authentication: Supports authentication methods like Basic Auth, Bearer Token, and OAuth 2.0.
Team Collaboration Tools: Shared collections, workspaces, and role-based access control for team projects.
Customizable UI: Theming options with a Zen mode for a personalised and focused interface.
PWA with Offline Support: Functions as a Progressive Web App that works offline and across devices.
I recently spoke to @liyasthomas, the founder of Hoppscotch. He mentioned that Hoppscotch was initially a fun side project where he built an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) in 2 hours! 🤯
He sent me the original code for Hoppscotch, which you can check out here.
[2] Firecamp
Firecamp simplifies API development with its developer-centric platform, enabling seamless design, testing, documentation, and collaboration on API projects. It has a sleek and intuitive interface and provides tools that optimize the API workflow.
About Firecamp:
Efficient Design: It's crafted for optimal performance.
Multiprotocol Support: Accommodates testing capabilities with
Rest,GraphQL,Websocket, andSocketIO APIs.Smooth UX: Offers a refined experience for developers.
Team Collaboration: Enhances productivity with shared workspaces.
Open Source: You can modify and contribute to the project.
If you enjoy using this tool (or have feedback!), you can connect with Firecamp's co-founder @shreya_gr 🚀
[3] HTTPie
Pronounced aitch-tee-tee-pie 😄, HTTPie started with a terminal version! The CLI version made web services as human-friendly as possible. All that user-friendliness of the Terminal version has now been wrapped up in a sleek graphical interface.
An interesting thing about the project is that they had 54k GitHub stars, but one day, they accidentally made the repo private, which led them to lose all of them.🙊😭
Make sure to give them a star so they can get back up to where they were!
About HTTPie:
Smooth API Interaction: Easily interact with APIs and test
REST,GraphQL, andHTTPAPIs.Organized Workspaces: Sort tasks into spaces, collections, and tabs.
Customizable Requests: Modify requests with variables for flexibility.
Sync Across Devices: Work seamlessly with autosave and sync features.
Build & Preview Requests: Prepare and preview requests before sending.
AI-Enhanced Work: Boost your tasks with AI-powered tools.
[4] Yaade
Yaade stands for the funny name of Yet Another API Development Environment 😁. Yaade offers a secure, self-hosted API testing environment focused on handling sensitive data. Its multi-user capability with customisable permissions is made to work well for teamwork.
The ability to execute requests to both local and remote servers adds some flexibility. Its data import/export process is designed to ensure easy setup and migration. Finally, it has a default dark mode UI, which is always pretty neat for any devs (unless you like pain and enjoy white backgrounds lol).
About Yaade:
Self-Hosted: Ensures data privacy by keeping all information on your own server.
Multi-User Support: Allows user and permission management within the team.
Data Persistence: Maintains data consistency even after server or container restarts.
Easy Data Transfer: Facilitates single-file data import/export for convenient migration.
Local & Remote Execution: Executes requests on the user's machine, allowing access to both localhost and remote servers.
User Interface: Comes with a default dark mode for a comfortable development environment. 👀
[5] Insomnium
Insomnium is a privacy-focused API client that values local and secure testing environments. Born from a fork of Kong/Insomnia, it removes the need for account logins and external server communications.
They are currently working on an integration with CodeLlama to help build automated front-end code generation - that's pretty cool IMO. 😎
About Insomnium:
Comprehensive Protocol Support: Tests
GraphQL,REST,WebSockets,Server-Sent Events, andgRPC.100% Offline Functionality: Works entirely offline for local testing.
Privacy-Centric: No tracking or communication with external servers.
Local LLM Integration: Upcoming feature for front-end code generation with CodeLlama based on API responses.
I hope you enjoyed learning about the free alternatives to Postman... 🙏
If you enjoy using these open-source projects and you are interested in contributing to the space, I invite you to check out Quira.sh.
At Quira, we have built a tool that allows you to pick your language and topic of preference to find the best repo to contribute to!
Whether you are a complete beginner or a seasoned expert, this is a handy tool for you to have (and yes.. it is entirely free 😄).
Sign up to Quira.sh and find, in the next 2 min, your next big coding project! 👩💻🚀
See you in the next one!
Your Dev.to buddy,
Bap 💚