Postman alternatives: 4 open source API clients worth switching to

People look for a Postman alternative for three reasons: they do not want an account and cloud sync just to send a request, they want collections they can commit to Git, or the team plan has become expensive. The good news is that the open source options now cover all three. The catch is that “open source” means different things for each of them, so we read each project’s license and pricing on October 16, 2026.

Quick comparison

API client	License	Runs as	Collections stored	Paid tier
Hoppscotch	MIT	Web app, desktop, CLI, self-hosted server	Browser, or your self-hosted instance	Optional hosted plans
Bruno	MIT (core)	Desktop app, CLI	Plain-text files in your project folder	Paid editions add extra features
Yaak	MIT (source)	Desktop app	Optional plain-text files	Commercial license for the prebuilt app at work
Insomnia	Apache-2.0	Desktop app, CLI	Local vault, Git sync or Kong cloud	Team and enterprise plans

Hoppscotch: Postman in the browser, or on your server

Hoppscotch is the closest thing to “open a tab and start testing”. It supports REST, GraphQL, WebSocket, Server-Sent Events, Socket.IO and MQTT, with collections, environments and pre-request scripts. You can use the hosted web app with no account, install the desktop app, or run the MIT-licensed Community Edition as a container on your own server, which keeps request history and shared workspaces on infrastructure you control. Version 2026.9.0 shipped in late September 2026.

Choose it when you want a team workspace without sending requests through a third party, or a zero-install client for quick checks. Browser security rules can block some requests, so install the browser extension or desktop agent for local and internal APIs.

Bruno: collections that live in Git

Bruno takes the opposite approach to cloud sync: it has none. Every request is a plain-text .bru file inside a folder you choose, usually your project’s repository, so collections are reviewed in pull requests and versioned like code. It works fully offline, has a CLI for running collections in CI, and imports Postman collections.

The core app is MIT-licensed and free. Some features, such as advanced reporting and certain integrations, are in paid editions. Most individuals and small teams never need them. Choose Bruno when “Postman, but in my repo” is the goal.

Yaak: fast and local, with an honest licensing model

Yaak was built by the original creator of Insomnia. It is a quick desktop app for REST, GraphQL, gRPC, WebSocket and Server-Sent Events, needs no login, and can store workspaces as plain-text files so you can sync them with Git or a shared folder.

Read the terms before rolling it out at work. The source code is MIT-licensed, but using the official prebuilt app for work or revenue-generating activity requires a paid commercial license, on an honor system. Personal use is free, and you can build it from source yourself. That is a fair model, but it is not the same as Hoppscotch’s or Bruno’s free core.

Insomnia: familiar, but check the account requirements

Insomnia, now owned by Kong, was the original open source Postman rival and is still Apache-2.0 licensed. It has a polished interface, design-first OpenAPI editing and a CLI for testing.

In 2023, Insomnia 8 pushed users toward an account and cloud sync, which drove many people to Bruno and Hoppscotch. Later versions added local-only storage and Git sync, so working offline is possible again. Before you standardize on it, check where your data will be stored and look at recent activity in the repository; Kong now develops the commercial product alongside it.

How to choose

• You want to stop using Postman today with no install: Hoppscotch on the web, then self-host it for the team.
• You want API requests versioned with your code: Bruno.
• You want a fast native client and are happy to pay for work use: Yaak.
• You design APIs from OpenAPI specs: Insomnia.

All four import Postman collections, so export one collection, import it into two candidates and run your most common requests in each before you migrate everything. The open source Firebase alternatives roundup covers the backend side, and you can browse every project in the directory.