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IBM API Connect Test & Monitor vs Postman: What are the differences?
**Introduction:**
Key differences between IBM API Connect Test & Monitor and Postman are as follows:
1. **Environment**: IBM API Connect Test & Monitor is specifically designed for testing APIs deployed on the IBM API Connect platform, providing integrated testing capabilities for APIs created within this ecosystem. Postman, on the other hand, is a more generic tool that can be used to test APIs regardless of the platform they are deployed on.
2. **Integration**: IBM API Connect Test & Monitor seamlessly integrates with the IBM API Connect platform, allowing users to easily access and test APIs created within this environment. Postman, while versatile, may require additional configurations or setups to integrate with specific platforms or environments, depending on the requirements of API testing.
3. **Collaboration**: IBM API Connect Test & Monitor offers collaboration features that facilitate teamwork and sharing of API testing results within the IBM API Connect platform. Postman has collaboration features as well, but they may not be as tightly integrated or specialized for API testing within a specific platform.
4. **Customization**: IBM API Connect Test & Monitor provides customization options tailored to the IBM API Connect ecosystem, allowing users to create and configure tests based on the specific requirements of APIs within this environment. Postman offers a wide range of customization features as well, but they may be more generic and not optimized for the specific functionalities of the IBM API Connect platform.
5. **Support and Documentation**: IBM API Connect Test & Monitor comes with dedicated support and documentation tailored to users of the IBM API Connect platform, ensuring that users can easily access help and resources specific to their needs. Postman, while widely used and well-documented, may not have the same level of specialized support tailored to users of a specific platform like IBM API Connect.
6. **Automation Capabilities**: IBM API Connect Test & Monitor offers advanced automation capabilities that are closely integrated with the IBM API Connect platform, allowing users to automate testing processes and workflows within this environment. While Postman also supports automation, the level of integration and specific features for automation within the IBM API Connect ecosystem may differ.
In Summary, the key differences between IBM API Connect Test & Monitor and Postman lie in their platform specificity, integration capabilities, collaboration features, customization options, support and documentation, and automation capabilities.
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 IBM API Connect Test & Monitor
- Great no-code alternative to using Postman1
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 IBM API Connect Test & Monitor
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