Best 8 API Testing Tools to Watch in 2024
APIs are considered as the founding stone of modern software or applications, integrating systems and sharing various data. It’s very challenging to guarantee a smooth flow of work. Here, API testing tools come forward.
APIs can also fail, leading to broken systems and bad user experience if you do not test them appropriately. Fortunately, there are some popular API testing tools available in the market that can make your journey as a software tester smooth.
In this blog post, I am going to discuss the eight best API testing tools you should look for in 2024. These testing tools can help you make the testing procedure easier by improving the overall software development procedure.
Let’s start your journey by developing your ideas on API testing tools below.
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Table of Contents
What Are API Testing Tools?
Software that helps you test Application Programming Interfaces is referred to as an API testing tool. APIs offer easy and smooth communication among different software programs.
Testing allows the proper execution of these links or services. With effective API testing tools, QA engineers or new testers can test if APIs send and receive the right information, respond fast, and manage errors quickly.
With the proper application of these software testing tools, you can test how APIs perform in different practical situations. They can look for errors or bugs like broken links, delayed responses, or incorrect data.
Software testers can guarantee that the program executes as intended, boost performance, and spot errors quickly by using API testing tools. You can save time and manual effort and receive high-quality software as an outcome.
Points to Consider When Picking API Testing Tools?
Choosing the most accurate API testing tool allows effective and functional QA processes. Testing these tools against various factors is very significant to spot the right one for your software developement project requirements.
Below, I have decided to highlight some key points that you must consider while choosing the best API tool for your project.
CI/CD integration: Try to choose a continuous integration or continuous delivery (CI/CD) supporting tool for API testing. This makes the testing process simple and automated at every software development stage.
Ease of accessibility: Always seek API testing tools that are easy to use, particularly for new users or new software testers. A simple and easy user interface boosts up the testing process.
HTTP Request Support: You must always use the API testing tools that allow you to integrate or assist with various HTTP requests.
Protocol Assistance: Ensure that the API testing tool is highly compatible with various protocols, like HTTP, REST, and SOAP. This versatility is effective while using different API kinds.
Easy Reporting: Choose a tool that offers thorough and clear reports. Proper reporting makes it simple to decode test findings and recognize errors more swiftly.
Automation: Choose a tool with excellent automation functionalities. Testing can also be executed automatically and without human involvement or manual interventions, saving time.
Speed: Always go for a fast tool that speeds up the entire testing process, allowing software testers or developers to spot and address errors very quickly and boosting the whole software development process.
Top 8 Trending API Testing Tools
If you want to detect and fix bugs and deliver high-quality software instantly, you must opt for some popular API testing tools such as Postman, SoapUI, TestComplete, or more!
Let’s explore the comprehensive list of API testing tools that I have tried to list in one place and use them as per requirement to improve your software delivery process.
1. Postman
Postman is one prominent name you can’t deny while looking for the most effective API testing tool. It allows you to do smooth API data extraction and manage Restful calls.
It can also swiftly create and handle API tests with its easy-to-navigate GUI feature.
Standout Features
- Multiple browser compatibilities such as Google, Linux, Windows, and Max.
- Boolean test cases support
- API design workflow
- Multi-partner workspaces
- API repository
- Data visualization
- API Documentation
- Authorization
- API requests
- Pre-request scripts
- Generates fake test data
- API client access
- Mock server requests
- Cloud-based integrations
- Audit logs
- 70+ custom templates
- Postman vault
Pricing Plans
Postman offers a 30-day free trial plan on API testing for beginners with a limited number of features. If you want to avail some exclusive API testing features, then choose from the following paid pricing plans;
- The Basic Plan starts at $14 a month
- The Professional Plan starts at $29 a month
- The Enterprise Plan starts at $49 a month
2. TestSigma
TestSigma is highly recommended to QA testers in this competitive landscape of software testing in 2024. You can execute API testing with the help of this API testing tool. As it uses a simple scripting language similar to English, the testing seems very easy to testers.
Standout Features
- Reusability
- Headless browser automation support
- Unicode compliance
- Text execution
- Cross-browser support
- 24*7 user support
- Visual testing
- Custom reports and dashboards
- Multi-language support
- Parallel testing
- Bug Tracking
- Smart test Record feature
- CI/CD tools integration
- NLPs support
- Test case creation
- Low/no code support
- Real device cloud
Pricing Plans
TestSigma provides a free trial plan for newbies in this highly competitive testing domain. If you want to get some advanced API testing features, then you can opt for its paid subscription plans. The plans are;
- The Pro plan starts at $399 a month
- The Basic plan starts at $299 a month
- An Enterprise plan is custom-built, and pricing is based on demand.
3. Katalon Studio
This powerful automation testing tool is very popular among API testing tools. The robust data-driven strategies and in-built features like recording and playback make it the most preferred choice of QA engineers.
It has no or low code features, offering custom-built templates to manage data scripts very easily.
Standout Features
- Supports BDD testing
- Built-in object repository
- Object re-identification
- AI-powered visual testing
- Cloud-based app testing
- Built-in integrations with CI and DevOps
- Real-time analytics
- Hybrid testing
- CI/CD pipelines
- Camera image injection
- Traceability matrix
- Instant feedback mechanism
- Cross-browser testing
- Execution scheduler
- GraphQL support
- Instant feedback loop
Pricing Plans
Kalaton Studio offers a free trial plan for new software testers with very few API testing features. If you want to avail yourself of more exclusive features, pick from the following paid pricing plans.
- The Premium plan starts at $218 a month per user.
- The Ultimate plan is custom-built, so the price of this plan depends on the features or services you opt for.
4. Cypress
Cypress is another major API testing tool that is specially designed to satisfy the testing demands of software testers and QA engineers. Those who look for a one-stop solution for their testing requirements and have prior knowledge of JavaScript can go for Cypress.
Standout Features
- Easy and simple setup
- Mocking feature
- Community support
- Hybrid framework
- Test retries
- Flate resistance
- Visual debugging
- Native browser inspection
- Embedded cloud workflows
- Smart Orchestration
- UI coverage
- Integrated workflows
- Low handing charge
- CI integration
- Visual reviews
Pricing Plans
This open-source testing tool is free to use, and one can use it without buying any license to access all the basic testing features. A free 14-day trial plan is offered. If you are someone looking for exclusive and more advanced testing features, then you can opt for their paid plans. The plans include;
- The Team plan starts from $75 a month.
- The business plan starts at $300 a month.
- The Enterprise plan is custom built and the charge is as per testing requirements.
5. Rest Assured
Rest Assured is famous for its Java-built library for API testing. It also helps you to execute automated REST API testing. Java-based project integration is another major feature. Its DSL feature helps make Java more intuitive and highly readable for users.
Standout Features
- BDD or Behaviour-driven development
- Built-in functionalities
- DSL feature
- JSON request support
- XML support
- JSON response payload support
- JUnit and TestNG integration
- Request support
- Customization
- Data-driven testing
- User-friendly interface
- Data format parsing
- Mock server integration
- Validate API responses.
Pricing Plans
REST Assured is freely available for all users as it is an open-source Java library for testing RESTful APIs. Therefore, you can access all the API testing features very easily by detecting bugs and fixing them quickly without costing a penny.
6. Karate DSL
This is another major domain-specific programming language that helps in testing API effectively. Developers can create tests using BDD or behavior-driven development syntax using this specific API testing tool.
This tool enables you to develop a test to sequence calls to any of the different web services.
Standout Features
- Testing and reporting
- Reusability
- Flexible configuration
- Easy user access
- Data-driven mocking
- In-built assertions
- Easy-to-read syntax feature
- Mock inclusions
- Embedded JSON support
- Code formatting
- Code folding
- Syntax support
Pricing Plans
Karate DSL is an open-source and free API testing platform for beginners with a few basic features like API mocks, web browser automation, and 20+ integrations. If you want to explore more advanced API testing features such as debug and Async API testing, then pick from the following paid pricing plans;
- The Plus Plan starts at $12 a month
- The Pro Plan starts at $64 a month
- The Ultimate Plan starts at $140 a month
There is also a custom-built enterprise plan offered through Karate DSL.
7. SoapUI
Another major tool that is specially developed for SOAP, GraphQL and REST API testing is known as SOAP UI. This is a one-stop testing solution for testers and helps them to build a user-friendly graphical interface.
It also allows developers to execute various automated tasks such as regression testing, functional testing, and load testing.
Standout Features
- Drag-and-drop feature
- User-friendly graphical interface
- REST and SOAP support
- Automated regression testing
- Automated functional testing
- Mocking
- Easy debugging
- Functional testing
- Load testing
- Cross-platform support
- Security testing
- Custom scripting
- Integration with AssertJ library
- Performance testing
Pricing Plans
It’s a free and open-source platform. Hence, you do not have to worry about various software development features such as bug fixing, security testing, detailed reporting, and more. If you want to take advantage of some advanced features like automated API testing, then you must opt for the paid pricing plan of SoapUI, known as ReadtAPI.
8. TestComplete
TestComplete is another popular UI and functional testing tool that provides robust API testing features. It allows you to support different protocols, providing flexibility in testing varieties of APIs.
Standout Features
- Script test creation
- Automated GUI testing
- CI/CD tools integration
- Cross-browser testing
- Automated test analysis and reporting
- SmartBear
- Intelligent quality add-on
- Record and playback feature
- Test case Linking
- Multiple protocols are supported, such as REST, HTTP, and HTTPS.
- Script-less testing automation
- Cloud supported testing
- Parallel testing
- Automated UI testing
- Easy and quick editing tools
- Regression testing
Pricing Plans
A 14-day free trial plan is available on TestComplete for new testers or beginners. If you want to avail of various advanced automated API testing features, you have to choose from the four paid pricing plans of TestComplete;
- The Node-locked Base plan starts at $2,256 monthly
- The Node-locked Pro plan starts at $3950 monthly
- The float-base plan starts at $5,077 monthly
- The Node-locked Base plan starts at $2,256 monthly
Wrapping Up,
From trending API testing tools like Postman to SoapUI on automated API testing and Restful API testing, each tool provides a unique feature to the testing environment. Hence, you should adopt the API testing practices and technologies that are very effective for any IT company to deliver high-quality software.
I am hoping that I have demonstrated the trending API testing tools along with their key features in a very simple manner in this blog post and tried to solve all your queries. From automating API tetsing to detecting bugs, these popular API testing tools do the delivery of high-quality software without any hassle.
You can also fix bugs and test regressions with the appropriate usage of these API testing tools while delivering high-quality software.
If you still have doubts about API testing tools, please let me know in the comments below.
If you have any other tool to add to the list, please mention it.