If you’re still using Postman, you’ve probably noticed it’s been pushing harder and harder towards the cloud, mandatory accounts and paid subscriptions. Bruno takes the complete opposite stance: on top of having a very cute app icon, it’s an open source, offline-first API client that stores your collections directly as files on your machine. No cloud, no account, no forced sync. Your collections are files — you version them with Git like the rest of your code.
I switched from Postman to Bruno a while ago and haven’t looked back.
Tech sheet#
| Category | Details |
|---|---|
| Type | API Client (REST, GraphQL, gRPC) |
| Open Source | Yes (MIT) |
| Language | JavaScript / Electron |
| Platforms | Windows, macOS, Linux |
| Use case | Test and document APIs, replace Postman |
| Alternatives | Postman, Insomnia, Hoppscotch, HTTPie |
Pros / Cons#
Offline-first: no cloud, no account, your data stays local. You decide if and how you share it.
Git-native: collections are stored as plain text files (.bru format). You can easily sync them on Git or any file system. No more Postman-style JSON exports and imports.
Multi-environment: environment management is simple and effective. Switch between dev, staging and prod in one click, with dedicated variables for each context.
Multi-protocol: REST, GraphQL and gRPC are natively supported.
Lightweight and fast: the interface is smooth, no loading, no lag. A welcome change from Postman, which has become quite heavy over the years.
No stress testing: Bruno is purely an API client, not a load testing tool. For that you’ll need to look at other solutions like k6, JMeter or Locust.
Younger ecosystem: fewer plugins and integrations than Postman, but the essentials are there and the community is growing fast.
Partial migration: importing from Postman works well for simple collections, but some complex scripts or pre-request scripts may need adjustments.
Why leave Postman?#
The question is worth asking. Postman is still a great tool, but a few things pushed me to look elsewhere:
- Forced cloud: Postman increasingly pushes you to sync your collections to their cloud. For internal or sensitive APIs, that’s not always acceptable.
- Freemium model: useful features keep moving behind a paywall.
- Bloat: the app has become slow over successive updates.
- Versioning: exporting a Postman collection to version it in Git is tedious. With Bruno, it’s native.
Useful links#
My take#
Bruno is exactly what Postman should have stayed: a simple, fast API client that respects your data. Storing collections as files is a real advantage when working in a team with Git. You version API requests the same way you version code — it’s logical and it should always have worked this way.
My tip: create an api/ folder at the root of your projects to store your Bruno collections. That way, when someone clones the repo, they have the requests ready to go straight away. No more sharing Postman exports by email.
