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  5. Insomnia REST Client vs Paw

Insomnia REST Client vs Paw

OverviewDecisionsComparisonAlternatives

Overview

Paw
Paw
Stacks233
Followers277
Votes164
Insomnia REST Client
Insomnia REST Client
Stacks800
Followers652
Votes44

Insomnia REST Client vs Paw: What are the differences?

  1. Interface: Insomnia REST Client has a minimalist design, making it easy to navigate and use, which is great for beginners. On the other hand, Paw offers a more polished interface with a wider range of customization options, making it ideal for advanced users looking for a highly customizable tool.

  2. Authentication Support: Insomnia REST Client provides basic authentication methods like API keys and headers, while Paw offers a more extensive range of authentication methods, including OAuth, HMAC, and more. This makes Paw more versatile for testing APIs that require complex authentication processes.

  3. Code Generation: Insomnia REST Client allows users to generate code snippets in languages like JavaScript, Python, and Ruby, making it easier for developers to integrate API calls into their code. Paw, on the other hand, offers a wider range of code generation options, including Objective-C, Swift, Java, and more, catering to a broader range of developers.

  4. Team Collaboration: Insomnia REST Client offers limited team collaboration features, mainly through file sharing and syncing. Paw, on the other hand, provides advanced team collaboration features like synchronized team workspaces and API documentation sharing, making it a better choice for teams working on API projects together.

  5. Price: Insomnia REST Client is an open-source tool available for free, making it accessible to individual developers and small teams with budget constraints. Paw, on the other hand, is a paid tool with a one-time purchase fee, making it more suitable for larger teams and enterprises looking for a comprehensive API testing solution.

  6. Supported Platforms: Insomnia REST Client is available on macOS, Windows, and Linux, catering to a wide range of users across different operating systems. Paw, on the other hand, is exclusively available for macOS, limiting its accessibility to users who don't use Apple devices.

In Summary, Insomnia REST Client offers a simpler interface and is free, making it ideal for individual developers and small teams, while Paw provides a more advanced feature set, including extensive authentication support and code generation options, catering to larger teams and enterprises.

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Advice on Paw, Insomnia REST Client

Stephen
Stephen

Artificial Intelligence Fellow

Feb 4, 2020

Decided

Postman supports automation and organization in a way that Insomnia just doesn't. Admittedly, Insomnia makes it slightly easy to query the data that you get back (in a very MongoDB-esque query language) but Postman sets you up to develop the code that you would use in development/testing right in the editor.

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Detailed Comparison

Paw
Paw
Insomnia REST Client
Insomnia REST Client

Paw is a full-featured and beautifully designed Mac app that makes interaction with REST services delightful. Either you are an API maker or consumer, Paw helps you build HTTP requests, inspect the server's response and even generate client code.

Insomnia is a powerful REST API Client with cookie management, environment variables, code generation, and authentication for Mac, Window, and Linux.

Organize your Requests, make Groups or sort by Host, Name, etc.;Easily build your requests, enjoy Formatters and Dynamic Values.;See Request and Response infos, headers, and body.;View formatted or raw HTTP Requests and Responses.;JSON Outline Viewer and Editor.;Paw supports OAuth 1 & 2, HTTP Basic Auth and Amazon S3;Paw generates ready-to-use client code
Mac, Windows and Linux;Data import/export;SSL client certificates;Response history;JSONPath and XPath;Preview rendered HTML;Multipart form;Query parameter editor;Configurable proxy;Cloud sync and sharing;Nunjucks templating;Filter requests;Toggle SSL validation;Keyboard shortcuts;Configurable timeout;HAR import;Usable at almost all sizes;Drag-n-drop organization;Responsive interface;Import from curl;
Statistics
Stacks
233
Stacks
800
Followers
277
Followers
652
Votes
164
Votes
44
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 46
    Great interface
  • 37
    Easy to use
  • 25
    More stable and performant than the others
  • 16
    Saves endpoints list for testing
  • 13
    Supports environment variables
Cons
  • 3
    It's not free
  • 2
    MacOS Only
Pros
  • 16
    Easy to work with
  • 11
    Great user interface
  • 6
    Works with GraphQL
  • 4
    Cross platform, available for Mac, Windows, and Linux
  • 3
    Opensource
Cons
  • 4
    Do not have team sharing options
  • 2
    Do not store credentials in HTTP

What are some alternatives to Paw, Insomnia REST Client?

Postman

Postman

It is the only complete API development environment, used by nearly five million developers and more than 100,000 companies worldwide.

Karate DSL

Karate DSL

Combines API test-automation, mocks and performance-testing into a single, unified framework. The BDD syntax popularized by Cucumber is language-neutral, and easy for even non-programmers. Besides powerful JSON & XML assertions, you can run tests in parallel for speed - which is critical for HTTP API testing.

Appwrite

Appwrite

Appwrite's open-source platform lets you add Auth, DBs, Functions and Storage to your product and build any application at any scale, own your data, and use your preferred coding languages and tools.

Runscope

Runscope

Keep tabs on all aspects of your API's performance with uptime monitoring, integration testing, logging and real-time monitoring.

RAML

RAML

RESTful API Modeling Language (RAML) makes it easy to manage the whole API lifecycle from design to sharing. It's concise - you only write what you need to define - and reusable. It is machine readable API design that is actually human friendly.

Apigee

Apigee

API management, design, analytics, and security are at the heart of modern digital architecture. The Apigee intelligent API platform is a complete solution for moving business to the digital world.

Hoppscotch

Hoppscotch

It is a free, fast and beautiful API request builder. It helps you create requests faster, saving precious time on development

Falcor

Falcor

Falcor lets you represent all your remote data sources as a single domain model via a virtual JSON graph. You code the same way no matter where the data is, whether in memory on the client or over the network on the server.

DuckRails

DuckRails

DuckRails is an open source development tool that helps developer mock API endpoints quickly & dynamically outside the application code.

OpenAPI Specification

OpenAPI Specification

It defines a standard, language-agnostic interface to RESTful APIs which allows both humans and computers to discover and understand the capabilities of the service without access to source code, documentation, or through network traffic inspection.

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