Hoppscotch: The 100% Free Postman Alternative That Runs in Your Browser

By Prahlad Menon Published 2026-03-12 4 min read

Postman wants $14/user/month. Insomnia got acquired and enshittified. You just want to test an API endpoint without installing 500MB of Electron bloat.

Hoppscotch is the answer.

It’s a 100% open-source API development platform that runs entirely in your browser. No installation. No account required. No data collection. Just open hoppscotch.io and start testing.

Why Developers Are Switching

The migration from Postman has been accelerating, and it’s not hard to see why:

Feature	Postman	Hoppscotch
Price	$14/user/month (team)	Free forever
Installation	500MB desktop app	Browser tab (or PWA)
Open Source	❌	✅ MIT License
Self-Hosted	Enterprise only	✅ Docker one-liner
Data Privacy	Cloud-synced	Local-first option
Offline Support	Limited	✅ Full PWA

93,000+ GitHub stars don’t lie. Developers are voting with their feet.

Everything You Need, Nothing You Don’t

Hoppscotch covers the full API testing spectrum:

HTTP Methods — All of them. GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS, CONNECT, TRACE. Plus custom methods for non-standard APIs.

GraphQL — First-class support with schema introspection, multi-column docs, query building, and variable management.

WebSocket — Full-duplex communication testing with message history.

Server-Sent Events (SSE) — Stream updates from servers without polling.

MQTT — Publish and subscribe to topics. Essential for IoT testing.

Socket.IO — Real-time bidirectional event-based communication.

This isn’t a stripped-down “free tier.” It’s the whole platform.

The Features That Matter

Pre-Request Scripts

Run JavaScript before every request:

// Add timestamp to headers
pw.env.set("timestamp", Date.now());

// Generate random test data
pw.env.set("userId", Math.random().toString(36).substring(7));

Post-Request Tests

Validate responses automatically:

// Check status code
pw.test("Status is 200", () => {
  pw.expect(pw.response.status).toBe(200);
});

// Parse and validate JSON
const data = pw.response.body;
pw.test("Has user ID", () => {
  pw.expect(data.id).toBeDefined();
});

Environments

Switch between dev, staging, and production with one click. Variables like {{baseUrl}} and {{apiKey}} swap automatically.

Collections

Organize requests into folders. Share them with your team. Export as JSON or GitHub Gist. Import directly from Postman.

Team Workspaces

Collaborate in real-time with role-based access control. No per-seat pricing — just invite your team.

Run It Anywhere

Browser — Zero install. Works on any device with a modern browser.

PWA — Install it like a native app. Works offline. Low memory footprint.

Desktop — Native apps for Mac, Windows, and Linux when you want them.

CLI — Scriptable for CI/CD pipelines:

hoppcli run collection.json --env production.json

Self-Hosted — Full control over your data:

docker run -d -p 3000:3000 hoppscotch/hoppscotch

CORS? Solved.

The bane of browser-based API testing is CORS. Hoppscotch includes:

Browser Extension — Intercepts requests to bypass CORS restrictions
Proxy Server — Route through Hoppscotch’s proxy (or self-host your own)
Desktop/CLI — No CORS issues at all

The browser extension is available for Chrome and Firefox.

Migrate From Postman in One Click

Got years of collections in Postman? Import them directly:

Export your Postman collection as JSON
Open Hoppscotch → Import → Select file
Done

Your requests, folders, environments, and variables come over intact.

The Self-Hosting Play

For teams that care about data sovereignty, Hoppscotch can run entirely on your infrastructure. The self-hosted version includes:

Full feature parity with the cloud version
SSO integration (SAML, OIDC)
Admin dashboard for user management
Audit logs
Your database, your backups, your rules

This aligns with the broader trend we’re seeing toward self-hosted LLM APIs and developer-controlled infrastructure. When your API testing data includes production secrets and internal endpoints, keeping it on-prem matters.

Part of a Modern Dev Stack

Hoppscotch fits naturally alongside other open-source developer tools:

API Development → Hoppscotch
Browser Automation → PinchTab for AI agents, Playwright for E2E tests
API Documentation → Swagger/OpenAPI integration built into Hoppscotch
Agentic Workflows → WebMCP for exposing APIs to AI agents

The shift away from proprietary dev tools is real. Teams are building stacks where every component is inspectable, self-hostable, and free of subscription anxiety.

The Bottom Line

Hoppscotch proves that developer tools don’t need to be:

Expensive — It’s free, permanently
Heavy — It’s a web app that works offline
Closed — It’s MIT licensed, fork it if you want
Risky — Self-host it, own your data

If you’re still paying for Postman or wrestling with Insomnia’s latest pivot, try Hoppscotch for a week. The migration takes 5 minutes, and you might never look back.

Website: hoppscotch.io
GitHub: hoppscotch/hoppscotch
License: MIT (100% open source)

Hoppscotch was created by Liyas Thomas and has grown into one of the most-starred developer tools on GitHub. The project accepts contributions and has an active Discord community.