Postman
The most recommended of 5 API clients
Widely used API client for sending requests and sharing collections, with built-in AI; critics say the free plan keeps shrinking and pricing keeps tightening.
Widely used API client for sending requests and sharing collections, with built-in AI; critics say the free plan keeps shrinking and pricing keeps tightening.
52 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 17
- criticize it
- 35
- approval share
- 33%
Recommended in 9 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 17 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 0.4 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 9 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Built-in AI and MCP server
“I only realised there was a Postman MCP server after battling through that ordeal and eventually making all the tedious edits myself.”
Comment from 21 Dec 2025 in “Measuring AI Ability to Complete Long Tasks” “postman has AI that can write little scripts that visualize responses however you want”
Comment from 30 Nov 2025 in “Don't push AI down our throats” Good for complex API work
“For that, tools like Postman make sense.”
Comment from 9 Apr 2026 in “Ask HN: What you use for quick API checks?” “postman is great for complex stuff”
Comment from 9 Apr 2026 in “Ask HN: What you use for quick API checks?” Everyday tool for teams
“VS Code, Slack, Postman, Obsidian.. I use this software every day”
Comment from 6 Jul 2026 in “Anthropic's Method to Losing Goodwill in a Few Easy Steps” “my Postman (and Insomnia) preferring colleagues”
Comment from 28 Jan 2026 in “Make.ts”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Paywalls and shifting free-plan limits
“Every other API-testing tool seems to have evolved into a bloated, cloud-first, subscription-based "service"”
Comment from 1 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: Voiden – an offline, Git-native API tool built around Markdown” “Postman has quietly removed free multi-user collaboration and limited the free plan to a single user”
Comment from 9 Feb 2026 in “SHOW HN: Postman removes free team collaboration (small teams capped at 1 user)” “paywalls, feature gating, and pricing complexity become almost inevitable, even with good intentions”
Comment from 22 Feb 2026 in “The API Tooling Crisis” - Comment from 1 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: Voiden – an offline, Git-native API tool built around Markdown”
- Comment from 31 Oct 2026 in “Show HN: Ghostman – A fast, keyboard-driven TUI API client and webhook inspector”
- Comment from 16 Dec 2025 in “Pricing Changes for GitHub Actions”
Heavy memory use and slow startup
“each of those is going to require an additional GB or two of memory on every staff member's computer”
Comment from 4 Dec 2025 in “The RAM shortage comes for us all” “the use of electron is definitely a bad thing in terms of cold-start time and memory at idle”
Comment from 4 May 2026 in “Making Postman load 60% Faster” “the x86 version of Postman somehow got installed on my M1 and it was slow like a dog”
Comment from 4 Jun 2026 in “MacBook Neo Is So Popular That Apple Doubled Production” Drifted from its original API testing focus
“it's a massive change and deviation from its original purpose as an API testing and documentation tool”
Comment from 5 Feb 2026 in “Postman: From API Client to "Everything App"” “Postman has turned from something that's bad, that I put up with, to something that's god awful that I simply refuse to engage with.”
Comment from 22 May 2026 in “Slumber a TUI HTTP Client” Clunky UI for bulk or scripted testing
“I sit there fiddling with the UI five or ten times instead of just putting it into a loop in a real program”
Comment from 28 Jan 2026 in “Make.ts” “wanted it work in a slightly different way and be able to do some bulk testing”
Comment from 15 Feb 2026 in “AI is going to kill app subscriptions”
Other API clients people recommend
The four most recommended other API clients, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PostmanThis page | 17 | 35 | 33% | 9 | — | — |
| Bruno API client | 11 | 3 | 79% | 8 | — | Approved |
| Voiden | 9 | 5 | 64% | 6 | — | — |
| Slumber | 9 | 3 | 75% | 2 | — | — |
| Kvile | 5 | 0 | 100% | 2 | — | — |
What people said
40 of the 53 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“postman, insomnia, bruno all followed the same free -> freemium bait and switch”
“would make me want to use Postman over this”
“Postman almost entirely sidesteps docker.”
“There are nicer, git friendlier options for something being shown as a git repo primarily.”
“VS Code, Slack, Postman, Obsidian.. I use this software every day”
“the x86 version of Postman somehow got installed on my M1 and it was slow like a dog”
“Postman has turned from something that's bad, that I put up with, to something that's god awful that I simply refuse to engage with.”
“the use of electron is definitely a bad thing in terms of cold-start time and memory at idle”
“Customers aren't all that interested in that, and have a ton of security worries about it.”
“I can add -d @request.json much more easily than from within Postman”
“For that, tools like Postman make sense.”
“the monolithic nature of tools like Postman feels way too heavy”
“postman is great for complex stuff”
“the slow boil toward mandatory cloud sync + account requirements”
“It predicts spatially-resolved protein expression directly from routine H&E slides.”
“They seem to be intentionally destroying what once was a great product”
“paywalls, feature gating, and pricing complexity become almost inevitable, even with good intentions”
“I never saw a reason for that to be a paid service in the first place.”
“the curl frontend with a lot of bloat and an account + price tag”
“wanted it work in a slightly different way and be able to do some bulk testing”
“Postman has quietly removed free multi-user collaboration and limited the free plan to a single user”
“almost entirely replaced by GenAI agents”
“it's a massive change and deviation from its original purpose as an API testing and documentation tool”
“has been plagued with rug-pulls and everything I've seen says it's likely to happen here too”
“Every other API-testing tool seems to have evolved into a bloated, cloud-first, subscription-based "service"”
“my Postman (and Insomnia) preferring colleagues”
“I sit there fiddling with the UI five or ten times instead of just putting it into a loop in a real program”
“I only realised there was a Postman MCP server after battling through that ordeal and eventually making all the tedious edits myself.”
“The combination of Charles + Postman is great for reverse engineering mobile API's.”
“Postman is my goto example for saas enshitification.”
“Postman requires you to have an account and log in to download or export these to another format.”
“limiting how many times you can run your own API class from your machine”
“no matey, postman is not the time or place for me to familiarize myself with your data model”
“each of those is going to require an additional GB or two of memory on every staff member's computer”
“once beautiful software which is now widely hated by developers”
“postman has AI that can write little scripts that visualize responses however you want”
“For anyone who's accidentally hit the Prod environment when they meant to hit Dev, this is a game changer.”
“I recently saw code completion options in my chrome devtool console, and in postman sigh”
“tools that focus purely on HTTP-level recording/replay like Postman Collections”
“The only "misbehaving" Linux programs I can name from the top of my head are google chrome and postman”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.