Hoverfly vs Mockoon

Hoverfly Cloud is a hosted API simulation and mocking platform for testing without live API dependencies. It handles HTTP/S services including REST, SOAP, XML, JSON, and GraphQL. Users can capture and replay traffic, generate simulations from OpenAPI specifications, and match requests by methods, headers, parameters, and bodies. Simulations can delay responses, inject faults or errors, and modify replies. A command-line interface supports scripted configuration and testing pipelines. Hoverfly and hoverctl binaries run on macOS, Linux, and Windows, while documentation covers Docker and Kubernetes installation. The underlying Hoverfly framework is open source under Apache 2, has no GUI, and is generally run locally or in a user’s infrastructure. Cloud use cases include performance testing, functional testing, and development.

Mockoon is a free, open-source tool for designing and running mock APIs locally. It supports OpenAPI and can fit into existing applications and API design workflows. Mock behavior can use dynamic templating, rule matching, JSON databases, proxy mode, webhooks, and TLS. The tool can record requests and responses from a real API to create mocks, and it supports proxying and integration testing. The open-source version permits unlimited mock APIs and routes, including parallel runs. Its CLI can run mocks in headless automated environments such as CI, GitHub Actions, and Docker; mocks can also run in serverless environments including AWS Lambda and GCP/Firebase Functions. The desktop app stores mocks locally, works offline without an account, and reports that mock content and request data are not sent to Mockoon. Pro adds real-time team collaboration, synchronized mocks, and deployment management on private infrastructure; it can be self-hosted on-premises, in a private cloud, or on isolated or air-gapped networks. Team is listed at €10 a month, billed annually at €120/license/year, tax excluded. Eligible companies can request one 14-day self-hosted Pro trial with five license slots using a verified work email, without a payment method.