Postman killed free teams: 5 ways to test APIs without paying

On March 1, 2026, Postman gutted its free plan. One user. 25 collection runs per month. No shared workspaces. If you're on a team of three, that's $57/month for features that were free six months ago. The Team plan now costs $19 per user per month, up from what was previously included at no charge.

"Postman alternative" has been a top search query since the announcement. Developers want the same capability (build requests, inspect responses, share collections) without the monthly bill. Five options stand out, ranging from a terminal one-liner to AI assistants that call APIs on your behalf.

1. curl and HTTPie: free forever, zero lock-in

curl ships with every macOS, Linux, and Windows 10+ machine. It's the original API testing tool. No account, no cloud sync, no pricing page. You write a command, you get a response.

curl -X POST https://api.botoi.com/v1/email/validate \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"email": "dev@example.com"}'

Response:

{
  "success": true,
  "data": {
    "email": "dev@example.com",
    "valid": true,
    "disposable": false,
    "mx_found": true,
    "format_valid": true
  }
}

The main complaint about curl is readability. Long headers, escaped JSON, and no syntax highlighting make complex requests hard to scan. HTTPie solves this with a cleaner syntax that defaults to JSON:

http POST https://api.botoi.com/v1/email/validate \
  email=dev@example.com

HTTPie color-codes the response, formats JSON automatically, and infers Content-Type from the body. The CLI version is free and open-source. HTTPie Desktop (a GUI wrapper) has a paid tier, but the terminal tool is all you need for API testing.

2. Hoppscotch: open-source Postman in the browser

Hoppscotch is the closest free replacement for Postman's GUI. It runs entirely in the browser at hoppscotch.io, or you can self-host it on your own infrastructure.

What you get for free:

• REST, GraphQL, and WebSocket testing in one interface
• Collections and environments with import/export to JSON
• Request history and response time tracking
• Pre-request scripts and test assertions
• Team workspaces (on the self-hosted edition)

The workflow mirrors Postman: pick a method, type a URL, add headers and body, click Send. Responses render with syntax highlighting, headers in a separate tab, and a timeline showing DNS lookup, TLS handshake, and transfer time.

Hoppscotch's advantage over Postman is transparency. The codebase is on GitHub, the data format is plain JSON, and the self-hosted edition gives you team features with no per-seat fee. The hosted version at hoppscotch.io has a paid cloud tier, but the self-hosted community edition is free for unlimited users.

3. Bruno: local-first, Git-friendly collections

Bruno takes a different approach. Collections aren't stored in the cloud. They live as plain files on your filesystem using a markup language called Bru.

meta {
  name: Validate Email
  type: http
  seq: 1
}

post {
  url: https://api.botoi.com/v1/email/validate
  body: json
  auth: bearer
}

auth:bearer {
  token: {{api_key}}
}

body:json {
  {
    "email": "dev@example.com"
  }
}

Each request is a .bru file. A collection is a folder of .bru files. You commit them to Git alongside your application code. Code reviews cover API request changes. Branching and merging work the way developers expect.

Bruno addresses the biggest friction with Postman: data ownership. Postman stores your collections on their servers and syncs through their cloud. If Postman goes down or changes pricing again, your collections go with it. Bruno keeps everything local. Your requests live in your repo, versioned and backed up by the same tools you use for code.

The desktop app is free for individuals. Bruno Golden Edition ($19/month for teams) adds visual Git diff, collection-level scripting, and priority support. Even on the paid tier, all data stays local.

4. Interactive API playgrounds: test without setup

Here's an approach most developers overlook: API providers are shipping playgrounds directly on their documentation pages. You don't need Postman, Hoppscotch, or Bruno if the API you're testing has a built-in testing interface.

Every endpoint page on botoi.com includes a live playground. You fill in parameters, click Run, and see the response. No account required for the free tier (5 requests per minute, 100 per day).

The playground generates equivalent code in five languages: curl, Python, Node.js, Go, and PHP. Click the language tab, copy the code, and paste it into your project. You skip the step where you'd normally build the request from scratch in Postman, run it, then manually translate it to your language.

Try it yourself: open the email validation endpoint page, type an email address, and hit Run. The response appears in under a second, with code examples ready to copy.

Here's what the same request looks like when you copy the Node.js snippet from the playground:

const response = await fetch(
  "https://api.botoi.com/v1/email/validate",
  {
    method: "POST",
    headers: { "Content-Type": "application/json" },
    body: JSON.stringify({ email: "dev@example.com" }),
  }
);

const { success, data } = await response.json();
console.log(data.valid); // true

And in Python:

import requests

response = requests.post(
    "https://api.botoi.com/v1/email/validate",
    json={"email": "dev@example.com"},
)

data = response.json()["data"]
print(data["valid"])  # True

This covers the most common Postman use case: "I want to see what this endpoint returns before I write integration code." The playground gives you the answer and the code to go with it.

5. AI coding assistants with MCP

This one is the biggest shift in how API testing works. AI coding assistants like Claude Code, Cursor, and VS Code with Copilot can call APIs directly through MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers. Instead of building a request in a GUI, you describe what you want in plain English.

Botoi's MCP server exposes 49 curated tools. Point your assistant at it with one config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "botoi": {
      "url": "https://api.botoi.com/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "x-api-key": "YOUR_API_KEY"
      }
    }
  }
}

Then talk to your assistant:

> Validate the email address signup@tempmail.xyz

Calling botoi email-validate tool...

Result: {
  "email": "signup@tempmail.xyz",
  "valid": false,
  "reason": "disposable",
  "disposable": true,
  "mx_found": true
}

The email signup@tempmail.xyz is invalid because it uses
a disposable email provider (tempmail.xyz).

The assistant constructs the API call, executes it, parses the response, and explains the result. No switching windows. No copying URLs. No translating between GUI fields and code. The assistant does what Postman's GUI does, except it understands context.

Need to test five endpoints in sequence? Describe the workflow. The assistant chains the calls, passes data between them, and summarizes the results. This replaces Postman's collection runner for exploratory testing.

Comparison: Postman free vs. the five alternatives

	Postman Free	curl / HTTPie	Hoppscotch	Bruno	Playground	MCP
Price	$0 (1 user, 25 runs)	$0	$0 (self-host)	$0 (individual)	$0	$0
Team collab	$19/user/mo	Share scripts in Git	Self-host for free	$19/mo (data local)	Share URLs	Share MCP config
Offline	Partial	Full	Self-hosted only	Full	No	No
Git-friendly	No	Yes (scripts)	JSON export	Yes (native)	N/A	Yes (config)
AI-native	No	No	No	No	No	Yes
GUI	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Natural language
Install required	Yes	Pre-installed	No (browser)	Yes	No (browser)	Config only

Which alternative fits your workflow

There's no single replacement for Postman because Postman tried to be everything: GUI client, team collaboration platform, API documentation tool, mock server, and monitoring service. The alternatives are better when they're focused.

• You're a solo developer who lives in the terminal: curl or HTTPie. Nothing to install, nothing to configure, nothing that will change its pricing.
• Your team needs a shared GUI and you can self-host: Hoppscotch. Full Postman-like experience, open-source, no per-seat fee.
• Your team wants Git-native collections: Bruno. API requests reviewed in pull requests, versioned alongside code.
• You're exploring APIs and want fast answers: Interactive playgrounds. Test an endpoint and copy working code in 30 seconds.
• You already use AI assistants daily: MCP. Test APIs without leaving your editor, chain requests with natural language.

Postman's pricing change pushed developers to evaluate alternatives they should have considered years ago. The tool you pick depends on your workflow, not on which company raised the most funding. Start with the one that matches how you already work.