Last checked October 15, 2026
Best Free Alternatives to Postman (2026)
Postman is where a lot of developers save requests, environments, and tests. The free plan still exists. Solo and Team are the paid plans for a single person or a group. The open-source clients below replace the request runner. They do not replace Postman's public API network, monitors, or mock servers as a product.
What Postman costs
Postman's pricing page lists Solo at $9 per month billed annually, or $12 billed monthly, and Team at $19 per user per month billed annually, or $23 billed monthly.
A free plan is listed for individuals. Enterprise is contact-sales. Postman says Basic and Professional are no longer sold to new customers and that Team replaces Basic. The figures above are the ones printed on the pricing page for Solo and Team.
Ranked by Drop-in score
How we rank#1 is the highest-scoring alternative that is not sponsored. A featured listing, when one is sold, is labeled and sits after #1.
- #1 · Best drop-inOpen source
Bruno
A desktop API client that stores requests as files.
Last checked October 15, 2026 · MIT
MacWindowsLinux - #2Open source
Hoppscotch
A MIT-licensed API client you can run in the browser.
Last checked October 15, 2026 · MIT
WebMacWindowsLinuxSelf-host - #3Open source
Restfox
A small offline HTTP and socket client.
Last checked October 15, 2026 · MIT
WebMacWindowsLinux
Feature by feature
Full is the whole job. Partial is a real version with a gap. Missing means it does not do this. Not checked counts as zero in the score.
Scroll sideways to compare every alternative.
| Feature | Bruno#1 · 90 | Hoppscotch#2 · 77 | Restfox#3 · 65 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Send HTTP requestsWeight 10 | Full | Full | Full |
| Saved collectionsWeight 8 | FullEach request is a file in the collection folder. | Full | Full |
| Environments and variablesWeight 6 | Full | Full | PartialVariables exist in a minimal client. They were not compared to Postman environments feature for feature. |
| Scripts and testsWeight 6 | PartialRequest scripting exists. It is not Postman's test runner, monitors, and mocks. | PartialScripting exists. Monitors and mocks are not part of this score. | Missing |
| Collections as files in gitWeight 6 | Full | MissingWorkspaces are stored by the app, not as reviewable request files. | Missing |
| Runs without Postman's cloudWeight 8 | FullThe client runs locally and does not require a Postman account. | FullYou can run your own instance instead of Postman's cloud. | FullThe project describes itself as offline-first. |
| More than plain HTTPWeight 4 | PartialHTTP is the core. Treat GraphQL and other protocols as present only where your Bruno version documents them. | PartialThe repository covers more than REST, including GraphQL and WebSocket. This check did not grade every protocol. | PartialHTTP and sockets, from the project description. |
Real cost
Bruno
- Free tier
- The MIT-licensed app is free to use. Bruno also sells optional paid features; those are not required to send requests.
- Hosted plan
- No hosted price recorded.
- Self-hosting
- Not a self-hosted product. Collections live on disk. There is no Bruno server to deploy for the client itself.
Hoppscotch
- Free tier
- The source is MIT and can be self-hosted. A hosted offering also exists.
- Hosted plan
- No hosted price recorded.
- Self-hosting
- Moderate. The project ships a self-hosted server so a team can keep the client off the public instance. Approximate server cost: $6–15/mo for a small VPS. Unverified estimate.
Restfox
- Free tier
- The MIT client is free.
- Hosted plan
- No hosted price recorded.
- Self-hosting
- Not a self-hosted product. A local client. A server product was not part of this check.
Did you switch?
If you left Postman, tell us whether it worked and how long it took. Notes stay private until we approve them, and nothing is shown until at least five are approved.
Top pair
Migrate from Postman to Bruno
Export a collection as v2 or v2.1 JSON and import that file into Bruno. Monitors, mocks, and a full workspace dump are a different problem.
Read the migration guide