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Gitbook vs Postman: What are the differences?
Key Differences Between Gitbook and Postman
Gitbook and Postman are two popular tools used in software development and documentation processes. While they serve different purposes, there are several key differences between the two.
1. Document Type and Purpose: Gitbook is primarily used for creating and organizing documentation in a book format, including static websites and ebooks. It allows developers to write content using Markdown or AsciiDoc and includes features like version control, collaboration, and publishing options. On the other hand, Postman is an API development tool used for testing, designing, and documenting APIs.
2. Functionality: Gitbook provides a wide range of features for documentation purposes, including multi-language support, theme customization, search functionality, and integration with other tools like GitHub and Google Analytics. It offers a comprehensive solution for content creation, organization, and distribution. Postman, on the other hand, focuses on APIs and provides features like API testing, request/response management, mocking, monitoring, and team collaboration.
3. Interface and User Experience: Gitbook provides a user-friendly and intuitive interface for creating and managing documentation. It offers a visual editor that allows users to write content in real-time, preview changes, and apply formatting easily. Gitbook also provides a clean and customizable reading interface for end-users. Postman, on the other hand, offers a robust and feature-rich interface specifically designed for API development and testing. It includes various panels for making HTTP requests, inspecting responses, and managing collections.
4. Target Users and Community: Gitbook is mainly targeted towards developers, technical writers, and content creators who need to create and maintain documentation for their projects. It has a vibrant community and is widely adopted in open-source projects. On the other hand, Postman targets developers and API enthusiasts who work with APIs on a regular basis. It has a large and active community that contributes to its development and provides support to fellow users.
5. Pricing and License: Gitbook offers both free and paid plans, with additional features and advanced customization options available in the paid versions. It follows a freemium model where certain features are limited to the paid plans. Postman also offers free and paid plans with different levels of functionality, including team collaboration and advanced API monitoring. Both tools provide options for individuals and teams with pricing based on the number of users or additional features required.
6. Platform Compatibility: Gitbook is a web-based tool that can be accessed through a browser on any operating system, making it platform-independent. It also offers a desktop application for offline editing and syncing. Postman, on the other hand, is available as a desktop application for Windows, macOS, and Linux operating systems. It also provides a web-based version for easy accessibility.
In summary, Gitbook is primarily used for creating and organizing documentation in a book format, while Postman is an API development tool. Gitbook offers comprehensive documentation features, a user-friendly interface, and targets developers and technical writers. Postman, on the other hand, focuses on APIs, provides a feature-rich interface, and targets developers and API enthusiasts.
From a StackShare Community member: "I just started working for a start-up and we are in desperate need of better documentation for our API. Currently our API docs is in a README.md file. We are evaluating Postman and Swagger UI. Since there are many options and I was wondering what other StackSharers would recommend?"
I use Postman because of the ease of team-management, using workspaces and teams, runner, collections, environment variables, test-scripts (post execution), variable management (pre and post execution), folders (inside collections, for better management of APIs), newman, easy-ci-integration (and probably a few more things that I am not able to recall right now).
I use Swagger UI because it's an easy tool for end-consumers to visualize and test our APIs. It focuses on that ! And it's directly embedded and delivered with the APIs. Postman's built-in tools aren't bad, but their main focus isn't the documentation and also, they are hosted outside the project.
I recommend Postman because it's easy to use with history option. Also, it has very great features like runner, collections, test scripts runners, defining environment variables and simple exporting and importing data.
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.
Pros of Gitbook
- Prueba6
- Integrated high-quality editor4
Pros of Postman
- Easy to use490
- Great tool369
- Makes developing rest api's easy peasy276
- Easy setup, looks good156
- The best api workflow out there144
- It's the best53
- History feature53
- Adds real value to my workflow44
- Great interface that magically predicts your needs43
- The best in class app35
- Can save and share script12
- Fully featured without looking cluttered10
- Collections8
- Option to run scrips8
- Global/Environment Variables8
- Shareable Collections7
- Dead simple and useful. Excellent7
- Dark theme easy on the eyes7
- Awesome customer support6
- Great integration with newman6
- Documentation5
- Simple5
- The test script is useful5
- Saves responses4
- This has simplified my testing significantly4
- Makes testing API's as easy as 1,2,34
- Easy as pie4
- API-network3
- I'd recommend it to everyone who works with apis3
- Mocking API calls with predefined response3
- Now supports GraphQL2
- Postman Runner CI Integration2
- Easy to setup, test and provides test storage2
- Continuous integration using newman2
- Pre-request Script and Test attributes are invaluable2
- Runner2
- Graph2
- <a href="http://fixbit.com/">useful tool</a>1
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Cons of Gitbook
- No longer Git or Open1
- Just sync with GitHub1
Cons of Postman
- Stores credentials in HTTP10
- Bloated features and UI9
- Cumbersome to switch authentication tokens8
- Poor GraphQL support7
- Expensive5
- Not free after 5 users3
- Can't prompt for per-request variables3
- Import swagger1
- Support websocket1
- Import curl1