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Compare anything, side by side
Pick up to 4 api testing and we'll lay out their specifications side by side. Apples to apples only — once you pick the first item, the picker locks to its category so you don't end up comparing Selenium with OWASP Top 10.
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Postman
Postman
Commercial
Free Tier
Cloud / SaaS
Collaborative API development & testing platform.
Visit website ↗
×
SoapUI
SmartBear
Open Source
Free Tier
Self-Hosted
Open-source SOAP & REST API testing tool.
Visit website ↗
×
Karate
Karate Labs
Open Source
Free Tier
Self-Hosted
BDD
BDD-style API, performance & UI testing in one framework.
Visit website ↗Side-by-side
Specification comparison
Schema: Tools. Missing values are marked "Not available yet" — those are next on our research list.
Rating key:
Positive / Free / Fast
Limited / Moderate
Difficult / Steep
Informational
| Attribute | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing |
Free
tier + paid plans from $14/user/mo
|
Open Source
free; SoapUI Pro from $659/yr
|
Free
(OSS) + Karate Labs commercial support
|
| Free tier / OSS |
Yes
— 3 users, limited collections runs
|
Open Source
edition free
|
100%
open source
|
| License |
Commercial
(SaaS)
|
LGPL
(OSS) / Commercial (Pro)
|
MIT |
| Testing type | API Testing | API Testing | API Testing |
| Languages / SDKs | JavaScript (test scripts) | Groovy, JavaScript | Gherkin-like DSL (no Java/JS required) |
| Supported platforms | Windows, macOS, Linux, Web | Windows, macOS, Linux | Cross-platform (JVM) |
| Parallel testing |
Yes
— Collection Runner / Newman CLI
|
Yes
(Pro)
|
Yes
— built-in
|
| Speed | Fast | Moderate | Fast |
| Key integrations | Newman CLI, GitHub, Jenkins, Slack, OpenAPI | Jenkins, Maven, Bamboo, TeamCity | Maven, Gradle, Jenkins, GitHub Actions |
| Learning curve | Easy | Moderate |
Easy
to moderate
|
| Community / Support |
Massive
— millions of users
|
Large;
long-established SmartBear community
|
Active
GitHub community
|
| Maintained by | Postman Inc. | SmartBear | Karate Labs |
| First released | 2012 | 2005 | 2017 |
| Latest version | See website | See website | See website |
| Best suited for | API design, exploratory testing & team collaboration | SOAP & REST API testing, especially enterprise/legacy | BDD-style API + performance + UI testing in one tool |
| Official site | www.postman.com ↗ | www.soapui.org ↗ | www.karatelabs.io ↗ |
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