There was a time when Postman was the default choice for testing APIs. If you were building a backend application, Postman was one of the first tools you installed. It was simple, fast, and got straight to the point. You created a request, added some headers or a request body, clicked Send, and checked the response. That was pretty much all most developers needed.
I used Postman for years. I recommended it to students, used it in my own projects, and asked developers to install it during training sessions. It was the obvious choice.
But today, using Postman for simple local API testing feels very different.
What used to feel like a straightforward developer utility now feels like a much larger platform built around accounts, workspaces, cloud synchronization, collaboration, and a long list of other features that I personally don't need every time I want to test an endpoint.
The final reminder of why I moved away from Postman came during a corporate training session.
And honestly, it was frustrating.
What Went Wrong with Postman?
Postman started as a simple Chrome extension back in 2012. Its purpose was straightforward: give developers a convenient way to send HTTP requests and inspect HTTP responses without having to use the command line.
It solved a real problem, and it solved it well.
Over the years, Postman grew from a small developer tool into a full API platform. Today, it supports collaboration, API documentation, mock servers, monitoring, testing, workspaces, and many other features aimed at teams and enterprises.
None of that is inherently bad.
In fact, if you work in a large organization with multiple teams sharing APIs, many of those features can be genuinely useful.
The problem, at least for me, is that the simple workflow that made Postman great no longer feels like the main focus of the product.
Sometimes I don't need a platform.
I just need to send a request to localhost:8080.
The Incident That Reminded Me Why I Left Postman
Recently, I was conducting a technical training session at a company. We were building a REST API together, and after creating one of the first endpoints, it was time to test it.
Naturally, I asked everyone to download Postman. The installation went fine. Then the questions started.
"Sir, it's asking me to create an account."
"I can't save this request."
"Where do I create a collection?"
And then we realized that even saving requests required an active internet connection. That made me wonder: why do we need an account and an internet connection just to test an API endpoint running on localhost?
And this is exactly where I think Postman has lost something important. An API client should be able to work locally and independently. Cloud collaboration can be an additional feature, but it shouldn't get in the way of the basic job the application was built to do.
The irony was that we were conducting a training session about building APIs, but we ended up spending part of that session dealing with the API testing tool itself.
That experience reminded me why I had already stopped using Postman for most of my own work.
Is Postman Still a Good Tool?
Absolutely.
I don't think Postman is a bad product. In fact, it is still one of the most powerful tools in the API ecosystem.
If your company uses shared workspaces, API documentation, automated tests, mock servers, monitoring, and collaboration features, Postman can be a very good choice.
This isn't an article saying that everyone should uninstall Postman immediately.
It's about why I stopped using it. For the kind of work I do, Bruno fits better.
I spend a lot of time building APIs, experimenting with backend projects, and conducting training sessions. In those situations, I value simplicity more than having access to a huge platform.
And that's the important thing.
The best tool isn't the one with the longest feature list. It's the one that fits your workflow.
Why I Prefer Bruno
Today, I still keep Insomnia around, and I still understand why many developers use Postman.
But when I need to test an API, Bruno is usually the first application I open.
It is local, It is simple, It works well with Git, It doesn't force me to create an account.
And most importantly, it doesn't make me think about the tool itself. I can focus on the API testing.
That is what I want from an API client.
Conclusion
Tools should serve developers, not the other way around.
When a simple developer utility starts requiring accounts, login flows, cloud synchronization, and platform onboarding before you can test something running on localhost, I think it's reasonable to ask whether the tool has moved too far away from its original purpose.
Postman changed the way many developers worked with APIs, and it deserves credit for that. For a long time, it was the obvious recommendation for anyone learning backend development.
For me, Bruno brought back something I missed: a simple API client that opens, works, and gets out of the way.
No account required.
No unnecessary cloud dependency.
Just me, my API, and a Send button.
And honestly, that's enough.
