Hurl vs Postman

Hurl is a command-line tool for running HTTP requests written in a plain-text format. It can fetch data or test HTTP sessions, including flows where later requests use values captured earlier. It can evaluate queries against response headers and bodies. Hurl works with HTML, REST, SOAP, GraphQL, XML, and JSON APIs, and examples cover assertions for status, headers, cookies, XPath, JSONPath, response duration, and SHA-256 body hashes. For CI/CD, it can produce text, JUnit, TAP, and HTML reports; its documentation covers GitHub Actions and GitLab CI/CD. The lightweight binary is written in Rust, with an HTTP engine powered by libcurl. Installation options include binaries or packages for Linux, macOS, and Windows, as well as Docker, Cargo, conda-forge, and npm. The precompiled Linux binary requires libc 2.35 or newer. Windows installation requires a separately installed Visual C++ Redistributable Package. Hurl is free under the Apache License, Version 2.0.

Postman is a platform for building, exercising, sharing, documenting, and monitoring APIs. Its API client handles multiple protocols and includes authentication, response inspection and visualization, variables, environments, and request history. For API design, it supports specifications, mock servers, importing definitions, multiple definition formats, and third-party integrations. Testing options include collection runs and automated, integration, performance, regression, and end-to-end testing, with Postman CLI also available. Listed integrations include Jira, Slack, GitHub, GitLab, Microsoft Teams, VS Code, Amazon API Gateway, AWS Secrets Manager, and 1Password Vault. Postman describes local secret protection, cloud detection, runtime resolution, and connections to secret-management services. Its stated compliance credentials include SOC 2 Type II, PCI DSS, HIPAA, GDPR, and others. It says customer data is not used to train its models and Enterprise teams control AI access and usage. The Free plan includes 50 AI credits. Solo is $9 a month, billed annually. Basic and Professional plans are closed to new customers; existing Professional customers retain their current plan and pricing.