Postman vs Insomnia vs Bruno: Which API Client Should Developers Use in 2025?
Three years ago, this comparison would have been a two-horse race. Postman had roughly 20 million registered developers and Insomnia was the scrappy alternative for people who found Postman bloated. Then in 2023, a small open-source project called Bruno appeared on GitHub, and by 2024 it had crossed 30,000 stars—a signal that a meaningful chunk of developers wanted something neither incumbent was offering.
That shift matters because the API client you pick is not a neutral choice. It determines where your request collections live, whether your team can review API changes in pull requests, and how much of your workflow depends on a company’s cloud infrastructure. Here’s how the three stack up in 2025.
The Core Difference: Where Your Data Lives
Before comparing features, understand the architectural split.
Postman stores collections in its cloud by default. Local storage exists, but collaboration, mock servers, monitoring, and documentation all assume you’re syncing to Postman’s servers. Your API definitions are Postman’s data, accessible through Postman’s interface.
Insomnia follows a similar model. Since Kong acquired it in 2019, Insomnia has leaned into cloud sync, and its free tier now limits how many collections you can sync and how many collaborators you can add. Insomnia 8+ pushed users toward account creation.
Bruno inverts this. Collections are stored as plain .bru files in a folder on your filesystem. You commit them to Git like any other source file. There’s no mandatory account, no cloud dependency, and no telemetry by default.
This single design decision cascades into everything else—pricing, collaboration, privacy, and how well each tool fits into a modern CI/CD pipeline.
Postman: The Enterprise Standard
Postman remains the most feature-complete option, and for large organizations that’s often the deciding factor.
Strengths:
- Broad protocol support: REST, GraphQL, gRPC, WebSocket, SOAP, and MQTT
- Built-in mock servers, automated monitoring, and API documentation generation
- Postman Flows for visual API workflow building
- Deep CI/CD integration via Newman and the Postman CLI
- The largest public API network, useful for exploring third-party APIs
Weaknesses:
- The desktop app has grown heavy; startup times and memory usage draw frequent complaints
- Free tier is limited to 3 collaborators on collections
- Pricing scales steeply: Basic is $14/user/month, Professional $29/user/month, Enterprise $49/user/month (annual billing)
- Collection format is JSON but designed for Postman, so diffs in Git are noisy
- Account requirements and cloud sync raise questions for teams with strict data governance
Postman works best when you need the full platform—monitoring, documentation, and governance—and when your organization is willing to pay for it.
Insomnia: The Polished Middle Ground
Insomnia sits between the two extremes. It’s lighter than Postman, has a clean interface, and supports the protocols most teams actually use.
Strengths:
- Fast, focused UI that many developers prefer over Postman’s
- Solid GraphQL support, including schema introspection and query autocomplete
- gRPC and WebSocket support in the free tier
- Plugin ecosystem for extending functionality
- Environment variables and request chaining work well
Weaknesses:
- Free tier now limits sync and collaboration significantly
- Paid plans start around $12/user/month for Individual and scale up for teams
- Kong’s ownership means the roadmap aligns with Kong’s commercial interests, not purely with developer preferences
- Storage model is less Git-friendly than Bruno’s
- Some users report the transition to mandatory accounts as friction
Insomnia is a reasonable choice for individual developers or small teams who want a polished experience and don’t mind cloud sync. It’s less compelling for teams that want version-controlled API collections.
Bruno: The Git-Native Challenger
Bruno’s pitch is simple: your API collections are code, so treat them like code.
Strengths:
- Collections live as files in your repo—review API changes in pull requests
- No account required; fully offline by default
- Lightweight desktop app built on Electron but noticeably faster than Postman
- Supports REST, GraphQL, gRPC, and WebSocket
- Free and open source (MIT license), with an optional paid “Bruno Cloud” for teams that want sync
- Scripting uses JavaScript, similar to Postman’s pre-request and test scripts
Weaknesses:
- Smaller ecosystem and fewer integrations than Postman
- No built-in monitoring or mock server comparable to Postman’s
- Documentation generation is more limited
- Team collaboration via Git requires your team to actually use Git well
- Newer project, so some edge cases and enterprise features are still maturing
Bruno is the best fit for teams that already treat infrastructure as code, want API collections reviewed alongside application code, and prefer to avoid vendor lock-in.
Head-to-Head Comparison
| Feature | Postman | Insomnia | Bruno |
|---|---|---|---|
| Storage model | Cloud-first | Cloud-first | Local files (Git) |
| Free tier limits | 3 collaborators | Limited sync | None (fully free) |
| Protocol support | REST, GraphQL, gRPC, WS, SOAP, MQTT | REST, GraphQL, gRPC, WS | REST, GraphQL, gRPC, WS |
| Git-friendly | Partial | Partial | Native |
| Mock servers | Yes | Limited | No |
| Monitoring | Yes | No | No |
| Open source | No | Partially | Yes (MIT) |
| Entry paid tier | $14/user/mo | ~$12/user/mo | $0 (Cloud optional) |
How to Choose
Pick Postman if you need monitoring, mock servers, documentation, and governance in one platform, and your organization will pay for it. It’s the safest choice for large teams with mixed technical backgrounds.
Pick Insomnia if you want a cleaner, faster interface than Postman, use GraphQL heavily, and are comfortable with cloud sync. It’s a strong individual developer tool.
Pick Bruno if your team lives in Git, values open source, and wants API collections to be reviewable artifacts rather than opaque cloud objects. It’s the most principled choice for engineering-led teams.
A practical hybrid: many teams now use Bruno for day-to-day development and CI, and keep a Postman workspace for external API documentation and monitoring. The tools aren’t mutually exclusive.
The Takeaway
The API client market has finally fragmented in a healthy way. Postman optimized for platform breadth and enterprise features. Insomnia optimized for a polished developer experience. Bruno optimized for the workflow that modern engineering teams actually use: version control, code review, and local-first tooling.
If you’re starting fresh in 2025 and your team uses Git seriously, Bruno deserves a serious look—it costs nothing to try, and the migration from Postman or Insomnia is straightforward. If you need the full platform, Postman still earns its price. The right answer depends less on feature checklists and more on where you want your API definitions to live.