REST Clients Comparing some popular REST clients

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REST clients are apps that can be used to make HTTP requests to an API. Even though they are often referred to as “REST clients,” they typically can make requests to other types of HTTP APIs as well. As you need to use a REST client to make requests to the APIs you create. This document explains the benefits of a few REST clients. Feel free to choose the REST client that makes sense for you.

• Apigee trace tool
• curl
• HTTPie
• Postman
• Hoppscotch

1. Apigee trace tool :- The Apigee trace tool can be used to make simple API GET requests from the Apigee console. The trace tool can only be used to make GET requests with a URL, and cannot be used to make any requests with headers or a payload. You will need the ability to send headers and payloads with your requests, so you will need another REST client.
2. curl :- Curl was first released in 1997 as command line tool to make API requests.
   Pros: Curl is a command-line tool that is already installed in many operating systems. If your job requires making API calls from lots of different machines, you will often find curl already installed for you. It is also fast and fully featured. If you have extensively worked with APIs in the past, you probably already know curl. It is open source.
   Cons: Curl’s interface is rather complex, and it can be difficult to remember all of the command line options.
3. HTTPie :- HTTPie was first released in 2012 as an attempt to create a friendlier version of curl.
   Pros: HTTPie is a command-line tool that is written in Python, which is already installed (or can easily be installed) in many operating systems. It uses a much simpler and more intuitive syntax than curl does. It colorizes the request and response. Its opinionated design makes sending REST JSON requests much easier than with curl. It is open source.
   Cons: HTTPie is not typically preinstalled in most operating systems, although it is generally easy to install. It does not have as many features as curl, and it doesn’t run as fast as curl.
4. Postman :- Postman was launched in 2015.
   Pros: Postman is a graphical application for API development. It is fully featured, including testing automation, workspaces, collections, and team management. It is very popular, and a free license is available.
   Cons: Postman requires installation of a native app. It also supports cloud and collaboration features, which allows saving of API requests and responses that may contain sensitive data. The Postman application is not open source, but the Postman runtime is.
5. Hoppscotch :- Hoppscotch (formerly known as Postwoman) was launched in 2019 as an attempt to create a lightweight web REST client as an alternative to Postman.
   Pros: Hoppscotch runs as a graphical progressive web app at https://hoppscotch.io/, and requires no installation. History and collections are stored client-side, not in the cloud, and can be imported or exported. Hoppscotch contains many of the features of Postman, but in a lightweight package. It is open source.
   Cons: Hoppscotch runs in a browser, so certain API requests cannot be made without using a proxy (due to the same-origin policy). Hoppscotch provides a proxy to get around this limitation, which is easily enabled from the settings menu.

Happy learning!