Open-source API client alternative to Postman
Visit WebsiteThe Bottom Line
Entry price
Free plan available, paid tiers above
Biggest pro
Git-friendly API client
Biggest con
Newer tool (less mature)
TL;DR - Bruno
- Bruno is an open-source IDE for exploring and testing APIs, alternative to Postman
- It stores collections in your filesystem with Git-friendly plain text files
- Free and open-source
What is Bruno?
Available on: Web, Windows, macOS, Linux
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Git-friendly API client
- Files stored locally (no cloud)
- Fast and lightweight
- Open source
- Markdown-based collections
Cons
- Newer tool (less mature)
- Fewer integrations
- Team features limited
- Community smaller
- Some features missing vs Postman
Ratings Across the Web
Bruno holds an aggregate rating of 4.7 out of 5 from 6 reviews across G2 and SourceForge, last checked May 29, 2026.
What people say
“Bruno is simple, intuitive, ideal for developers and testers.”via G2
“Bruno doesn't store (steal) my information via the cloud. I can work locally, and more importantly with Git.”via SourceForge
Ratings aggregated from independent review platforms. Learn more
Key Features
Pricing Plans
Free TrialPricing checked Aug 24, 2026
Free
Open source
- HTTP, REST, GraphQL
- Git integration
- Offline only
- Core features
Pro
$6/month per user
Teams
- Git UI
- OAS generation
- Priority support
Ultimate
$11/month per user
Enterprise
- Test reports
- Secret managers
- Premium support
Is Bruno worth the price?
Bruno is the most developer-friendly API client on the market, fully open-source, stores collections as plain files in your Git repo (no cloud sync needed), and the free tier is genuinely usable without artificial limits on requests or collections.
Pro at $6/user/month adds native Git UI integration and unlimited workspaces, while Ultimate at $11/user/month brings enterprise features. Compared to Postman, which recently restricted its free plan to a single user and charges $19/user/month for teams, Bruno is dramatically cheaper while offering a philosophy that resonates with developers: your API collections are just files, version-controlled alongside your code.
The tradeoff is a smaller ecosystem, no Postman-style public API marketplace, fewer integrations, and a younger product with some rough edges.
Hidden Costs & Gotchas
The free tier limits you to 2 workspaces. For most individual developers this is fine, but teams working across multiple projects will need Pro.
Pro plan pricing ($6/user/month) requires annual billing. Monthly pricing is not publicly listed, suggesting it may be higher.
No built-in cloud sync, collections live in your filesystem/Git. Teams without strong Git workflows may find collaboration harder than Postman cloud collections.
Import from Postman works but is not always perfect. Complex Postman collections with pre-request scripts may need manual adjustment.
The extension/plugin ecosystem is much smaller than Postman. If you rely on specific Postman integrations, verify Bruno supports them before switching.
OpenAPI sync is limited
free gets none, Pro gets 5/month, only Ultimate gets unlimited. Teams heavily using OpenAPI specs may need Ultimate.
How Bruno Compares to Competitors
Postman is the market leader with the largest ecosystem, public API marketplace, and AI features (Postbot), but has become expensive ($19/user/month for teams) and forces cloud sync that many developers dislike.
Insomnia (Kong) is similar in philosophy to Bruno, open-source core with paid collaboration, but has struggled with direction changes since the Kong acquisition. Hoppscotch is the other strong open-source alternative with the most generous free tier (unlimited everything) but less Git-native than Bruno. Bruno unique selling point is treating API collections as plain files: they live in your repo, diff cleanly, and never touch a cloud service.
How Bruno's pricing compares
At $6/mo, Bruno is the most affordable of its 4 direct competitors.
Entry paid plan, monthly. Pricing checked Aug 24, 2026.
Reviews
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Across 6 verified user reviews on G2, SourceForge
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Bruno FAQ
How does Bruno differ from Postman in handling API collections?
Which teams would benefit most from using Bruno?
What kind of use case is Bruno designed for?
What are the main trade-offs when choosing Bruno?
How is Bruno priced?
Can Bruno collections be easily shared and version-controlled?
Source: usebruno.com