Beeceptor

Beeceptor vs Postman

Beeceptor give you a hosted mock API endpoint in a few seconds!
No Code, No Dependencies, No Downloads!

Postman is a popular API development tool that provides a GUI for making HTTP requests and viewing responses. However, its API mock feature takes a backseat to its API design and API client capabilities. In contrast, Beeceptor puts API mocking at the core and provides an exceptional mock server experience. At Beeceptor, this is not an afterthought. With Beeceptor, you can easily deploy changes on the mock server and view incoming requests and responses in real-time, all within the same mock context. Beeceptor uses web-sockets to create an engaging and seamless experience for developers and QA professionals.

Beeceptor and Postman have some similar features for mocking APIs. For example, both offer a cloud/hosted service, simulating failures, HTTP delays, request history, etc. However, Beeceptor has many advantages over Postman. The table below highlights the major benefits of using Beeceptor over Postman.
Beeceptor
Postman
Category
Beeceptor is an API Mocking tool. It gives you a server endpoint to accept requests. It's comparable to an API Gateway.

Beeceptor also provides HTTP debugging and proxy capabilities, enhancing its utility for testing and intercepting HTTP requests.
Postman is an API Client, Design and Documentation tool with features for API lifecycle management. It is majorly an API client. It has API mocking feature as well.
Installation
Super easy! Replace API's base-url.
Beeceptor doesn't require you to download anything or add any package/library as a dependency. It is managed via a web-browser based UI for all platforms.
Download, Install & Replace API's base-url.
You download the Postman application, install and start the mock server. The application is available for all the platforms.
Pricing
Free for 1,500 requests/month
$10 for 15,000 requests/month
$25 for 100,000 requests/month
Unit: Pricing per API endpoint (subdomain). Unlimited users and sharing.
Free for 1,000 requests/month
$19 for 10,000 requests/month
$39 for 100,000 requests/month
Unit: Pricing per user or seat.
Mock URL
You get a named endpoint of your choice.
You get a random UUID endpoint name.
Management of Mocking Rules
Simple to understand mocking rules and their execution.

  • Mocking rules are defined as first class entity.
  • Mocking rules are executed in top-to-bottom order. The first rule that matches wins.
  • Reorder matching rules with ease.
  • Review audit logs for changes made by team on an endpoint (available with Enterprise plan)
Complex matching algorithm that depends on custom headers ( x-mock-*). Sometimes require code changes to get deterministic mocked response.

  • The mock server uses 'saved examples' to return mock data. These examples are picked from the API collection.
  • A request can have more than one example, in which case the mock server will follow a matching algorithm to decide which example to return.
  • You cannot simulate failures with ease. You need to delete all the success examples present in the collection.
Real time
Beeceptor gives you an engaging real time experience. You can view incoming requests and responses in real-time. It uses fanout architecture to notify all the consumers who are currently live to view updates.
You need to go to request logs and pull updates by clicking the 'Refresh Log' button.
HTTP Proxy
Beeceptor lets you proxy traffic to the original APIs. The request will be routed to your original API if there are no matching mocking rules. The result of this is a seamless API endpoint, where you have patched new mocks on top of an existing API endpoint.
HTTP proxy is not available with Postman.

It has a Custom Proxy feature, which records the traffic between two services on the machine where Postman is running.
Dynamic Mock Responses
Beeceptor supports Handlebar styled syntax for picking request's body, headers, query parameters, etc. In addition, it has FakerJs styled dummy data generators.

Beeceptor goes further and gives you an ability to make FakerJs parameterized. E.g.

  • Generate a random number between 40 and 100.
  • Generate a past date in the last 5 months.
  • Generate 12 digits of alphanumeric.
Read the docs

Postman supports Handlebar styled syntax for picking request's body, headers, query parameters, etc. In addition, it has FakerJs styled dummy data generators.
Binary Response (File Serving)
Beeceptor supports the uploading of binary files like GZIP, PDF, MP4, etc., to mock binary API responses, facilitating effective simulation and testing of how applications process different file formats.
Postman is limited to handling text-based content types, such as JSON and XML, and does not support binary response formats.
Request Log/History
The call logs (referred as Request History) are available for 10 days with Team plan and above.

  • You can download the request log as a HAR file to visualize locally.
  • You can search and filter history using facets. E.g. request path, HTTP status code, text inside the response body, date.
The call logs (referred as Request Log) are available for 7-30 days based on your selected plan.

  • You cannot download request log. Although, you can use Postman APIs to query and retrieve.
  • The search and filter is basic and only works for request path.
Local Tunnel
Beeceptor supports local tunneling. As a developer, you can route all the incoming requests to an API/HTTP service running locally on your development machine.
Read the docs
Not available with Postman.
Delays
Available at request or API level. (fine-grained)
Available at the collection level. (coarse-grained)
Security of Mock Server
Secure your mock server with any HTTP header name and value pair. E.g. Authorization (Bearer, HTTP Basic), x-api-key, etc.
Secure your mock server by passing an x-api-key.
*This comparison report evaluates the API Mocking capabilities of various services based solely on publicly available documentation. If you come across any discrepancy, please contact us at support@.Compare Beeceptor with Wiremock Cloud