Why developers leave Postman: pricing changes through 2023-2024 surprised teams, the desktop app gained complexity many users didn't want, and OSS alternatives now match the core API-testing functionality. For most use cases the alternatives are simpler and cheaper.
Hasura's Console is included as a Postman alternative for teams whose API testing is primarily against their own GraphQL API. Built-in query builder, history, environment variables. Wrong alternative for general REST API testing across third-party APIs.
Insomnia is the most direct replacement — strong reviewer reports. Bruno is the OSS-aligned option (file-based, git-friendly). HTTPie's desktop app fits CLI-first developers. We rank these in our API-tooling category when reviewer thresholds are met.
For solo devs, often yes. Reviewer reports show many engineers replaced Postman with shell scripts + jq + curl. Good documentation tools (Postman/Bruno) help when collaborating; for solo work the scripts approach is leaner.
Postman exports collections as JSON. Bruno and Insomnia both import. The data move is mechanical. The harder work is rewriting Postman-specific JS test scripts for the destination tool's conventions. Plan a sprint for non-trivial collection portfolios.
