Karate vs Pact
Karate
karatelabs.io
Pact
pact.ioSide by side
| Figure | Karate | Pact |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $8.33/mo | $115.42/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | Yes | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 5 | 5 |
| Spec score · Contract Testing Tools | 9.1 (#1) | 8.7 (#2) |
| Spec score · Integration Testing Tools | 9.2 (#2) | 8.8 (#5) |
| Spec score · API Testing Tools | 9.1 (#4) | 8.8 (#6) |
| Integrations | The integrations directory lists more than 40 native integrations and more than 15 protocols or formats. | PactFlow's Bi-Directional Contract Testing integrates with OpenAPI and lists Cypress, Postman and Wiremock as tools for writing contracts. |
| Purpose | Karate combines API, UI, mock, and performance testing in one framework with readable syntax. | Pact is a code-first tool for testing HTTP and message integrations with contract tests. |
| Security | Karate Labs says its products run locally or in customer infrastructure, store no customer test data, and ship with zero telemetry. | PactFlow says it encrypts data at rest with AES-256, enforces TLS 1.2 or higher, and stores data and backups in AWS Sydney. |
| Support | The free tier includes community support, Pro includes priority email support, and Enterprise includes commercial support with an SLA and dedicated Slack channel. | Pact's official site directs users to documentation, a Slack channel and partner support; PactFlow plans list email support for Team and dedicated account and customer care for Enterprise. |
Plans
Karate
- FreeFree
- IDE Plus$100 a year
- Xplorer Premium$200 a year
- Pro$640 a year
- Karate EnterprisePriced on request
Pact
- PactFlow StarterFree
- Pact open-source toolingFree
- PactFlow Team (yearly)$115.42 a month
- PactFlow Team (monthly)$127 a month
- PactFlow EnterprisePriced on request
In their own words
Karate
Karate is a testing framework for API, UI, mock, and performance work. Its MIT-licensed core is free for commercial projects and supports REST, GraphQL, and SOAP testing, with JSON and XML assertions and schema validation. It can automate browsers and desktop apps, and combine UI and API steps in one test. Built-in Gatling integration lets teams reuse API tests for performance testing. The Free plan costs nothing and includes community support. Paid plans include IDE Plus at $100 a year, Xplorer Premium at $200 a year, and Pro at $640 a year; Pro adds IDE plugins, debugging, enhanced autocomplete, development async protocol testing, and priority email support. The platform lists integrations including AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, Jenkins, GitHub Actions, Maven, Gradle, Docker, IntelliJ, VS Code, and Gatling. Enterprise async protocol testing covers Kafka, gRPC, and WebSocket, but production CI/CD execution requires an Enterprise runtime license. Platforms include API, extension, Linux, macOS, self-hosted, and Windows.
Pact
Pact is a free, code-first tool for testing HTTP and message integrations with contract tests. Automated consumer tests create contracts describing concrete interactions between consumer and provider applications. Teams can then test each side in isolation against that shared contract, without deploying the entire system. Pact implementations are available for more than 10 languages, including JavaScript, Java, .NET, Go, Python, Ruby, Swift and Objective-C, Scala, Rust, PHP, and C++. Its CLI includes mock and stub servers, a provider verifier, a broker client, and a plugin CLI. The open-source Pact Broker shares contracts and verification results; teams can host and administer it themselves, and use its CI/CD workflows to check whether application versions can be deployed together. The verifier supports HTTP and asynchronous and synchronous messages, while plugins include gRPC, Avro, and CSV support. Documentation includes recipes for tools and scenarios such as GraphQL, Cypress, Kafka, and AWS Lambda. Pact is most useful when teams control both consumer and provider development. The free Broker is self-hosted, leaving its security, maintenance, and upgrades to its operator.