For API developers, Postman is a fantastic tool for debugging endpoints and catching any bugs.
For API developers, Postman is a fantastic tool for debugging endpoints and catching bugs. However, as a seasoned user, I've encountered several inconveniences, such as:
- Every time I finish coding, I have to copy the API URL and parameters into Postman. Often, I'm just clicking "Send," but I've already wasted more time on inputting parameters than I'd like.
- Setting up assertions is only possible with built-in JavaScript scripts, which isn’t very intuitive.
- Similarly, extracting variables from responses also requires scripting.
- Frequently, I need to compare API responses with my database, but Postman can't do that.
- On top of that, the constant nudges to pay for premium features are maddening.
So, I started looking for alternatives. I tried Insomnia and Thunder Client, but they didn’t really stand out against Postman.
Then I discovered EchoAPI, and it basically checked all my boxes.
1. Rich Plugin Ecosystem
As a Java developer, EchoAPI offers an IntelliJ IDEA plugin that scans my code and identifies all the APIs. All I need to do is click "Send." Plus, I can sync data directly to the EchoAPI client with one click.
Like Postman, EchoAPI supports pre-scripts and test scripts that are fully compatible with Postman’s syntax. However, today I want to highlight some additional features.
2. Visual Operations
EchoAPI excels with its visual operations.
Visual Assertions
You can set up assertions visually from the response body (JSON, XML, etc.), headers, status codes, and response times—no coding required.
Visual Variable Extraction
You can extract variables visually from the response body, headers, status codes, and response times, again with zero coding.
3. Database Capabilities
EchoAPI supports database operations in pre- and post-request scripts. This means I can do things like read from a user table in the pre-script to use the data as request parameters, or check the comments table after adding a comment to see if it was correctly inserted into my MySQL database.
All in all, EchoAPI is an amazing product.