Top 7 REST API Tools for Streamlining Your Workflow

Anna
4 min readMar 13, 2023

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REST API Tools

In today’s fast-paced world, REST API has become an integral part of web development, allowing developers to create robust and scalable web applications. However, designing, testing, and developing REST APIs can be a daunting task, especially if you don’t have the right tools.

In this article, we will be discussing the 7 best REST API tools for testing, design, and development that can help you streamline your workflow and improve the quality of your APIs.

Postman

Postman is a powerful API testing tool that allows you to design, test, and document APIs. With Postman, you can easily create API requests and see the responses in real-time. It also has a built-in code generator that can help you generate code snippets for different programming languages. Postman is free to use and can be downloaded as a desktop application or as a Chrome extension.

Some of key features for Postman

  • Postman is a popular API testing and documentation tool used by over 17 million developers worldwide.
  • It has a user-friendly interface and supports RESTful, SOAP, and GraphQL APIs.
  • Postman supports automation testing, team collaboration, and version control.
  • The tool is free to use, but a paid version with additional features is available.

Swagger

Swagger is a popular open-source tool for designing, testing, and documenting RESTful APIs. It has a user-friendly interface that allows you to create API documentation and test API endpoints.

Swagger also supports code generation for various programming languages, making it easier for developers to integrate APIs into their applications.

Key Features for Swagger

  • Swagger is an open-source API design and documentation tool used by thousands of developers worldwide.
  • It has a user-friendly interface and supports RESTful APIs.
  • Swagger supports API documentation, testing, and code generation for popular programming languages.
  • The tool is free to use, but a paid version with additional features is available.

SoapUI

SoapUI is an open-source API testing tool that allows you to create functional tests, load tests, and security tests for REST and SOAP APIs. It has a user-friendly interface that makes it easy to create complex test scenarios. SoapUI also supports data-driven testing and can generate reports in multiple formats.

SoapUI features

  • SoapUI is an open-source API testing tool used by thousands of developers worldwide.
  • It supports RESTful and SOAP APIs and has a user-friendly interface.
  • SoapUI supports functional, load, and security testing and can generate reports in multiple formats.
  • The tool is free to use, but a paid version with additional features is available.

JMeter

JMeter is a popular open-source tool for load testing web applications, including REST APIs. It allows you to simulate heavy loads and test the performance of your APIs under different conditions. JMeter also has a user-friendly interface that makes it easy to create test scenarios and generate reports.

JMeter Key features

  • JMeter is an open-source load testing tool used by thousands of developers worldwide.
  • It supports web applications, including RESTful APIs, and can simulate heavy loads and test performance.
  • JMeter has a user-friendly interface and supports data-driven testing and report generation.
  • The tool is free to use.

Rest-Assured

Rest-Assured is a Java-based testing library for REST APIs. It provides a simple and intuitive API for testing RESTful services. Rest-Assured also supports JSON and XML parsing and can be integrated with popular testing frameworks like JUnit and TestNG.

Rest-Assured Features

  • Rest-Assured is a popular Java-based API testing library used by thousands of developers worldwide.
  • It supports RESTful APIs and has a simple and intuitive API for testing.
  • Rest-Assured supports JSON and XML parsing and can integrate with popular testing frameworks like JUnit and TestNG.
  • The tool is free to use.

Insomnia

Insomnia is a free and open-source tool for testing RESTful APIs. It has a user-friendly interface that allows you to create and manage API requests. Insomnia also supports code generation for various programming languages, making it easier for developers to integrate APIs into their applications.

Key Features for Insomnia

  • Insomnia is a free and open-source API testing tool used by thousands of developers worldwide.
  • It supports RESTful APIs and has a user-friendly interface for creating and managing API requests.
  • Insomnia supports code generation for popular programming languages and can integrate with popular tools like Git.
  • The tool is free to use.

Test Evolve

Test Evolve is a comprehensive testing tool that provides easy-to-use UI and productivity-centric features for projects of all sizes. It supports REST, SOAP requests, and SSL client certificates, making it a versatile option for testing APIs.

Test Evolve also enables easy test imports from popular tools such as Swagger (2.0 & 3.0), Postman, WSDL, and WADL. Additionally, it has native CI/CD integrations with tools like Jenkins, Azure DevOps, CircleCI, Dockers, and more, allowing for seamless integration into existing workflows.

Test Evolve includes a built-in reporting platform “Halo” to centralize reports and activities across tool stacks, including version control systems, CI/CD, test automation tools, and ALMs.

Conclusion

In conclusion, these 6 REST API tools can help you streamline your workflow, improve the quality of your APIs, and save you time and money in the long run.

Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced developer, these tools can help you design, develop, and test REST APIs with ease. Incorporating these tools into your development process can help you stay ahead of the curve and deliver high-quality APIs to your users.

Also read: —

https://medium.com/@anna_jones/rest-api-testing-with-cucumber-using-bdd-approach-30ac2b4d6f46

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Anna

I am a tech blogger graduated from Brooklyn College, currenty working at Skylights.