LocalStack vs mountebank
LocalStack
localstack.cloudmountebank
mbtest.devSide by side
| Figure | LocalStack | mountebank |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $2.42/mo | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | — |
| Open source | Yes | — |
| Web | Yes | — |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 14 | 1 |
| Spec score · Service Virtualization Software | 9.1 (#2) | 7.6 (#15) |
| Installation | The recommended installation uses the lstk CLI, with Homebrew, npm and downloadable binaries, and requires Docker. | The getting started guide documents installation through npm or running a Docker image. |
| Purpose | LocalStack simulates cloud environments on customer infrastructure so developers and AI agents can validate cloud applications before deployment. | mountebank provides cross-platform, multi-protocol test doubles over the wire for testing applications in place of real dependencies. |
| Support | Standard support is best effort with no guaranteed response time and a typical 24–48 hour response during business hours; Enterprise includes custom SLAs. | The support page directs users to a Google group for help. |
Plans
LocalStack
- Azure Public PreviewFree
- HobbyFree
- Hobby (LocalStack for AWS)Free
- Base (LocalStack for Snowflake)$29 a year
- Snowflake Base (annual)$29 a year
- Snowflake Base (monthly)$35 a month
- Base (annual)$39 a year
- Base (LocalStack for AWS)$39 a year
- Base (monthly)$45 a month
- Ultimate$89 a year
In their own words
LocalStack
LocalStack simulates cloud environments on customer infrastructure so developers and AI agents can validate applications before deployment. It currently emulates AWS and Snowflake, with AWS coverage described as 120+ services; an Azure public preview is coming soon. A typical workflow deploys application code and infrastructure-as-code resources into a local container, where teams can inspect failures and validate fixes before changing the endpoint to ship. LocalStack can run in GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, CircleCI, and Jenkins through a Docker image. The listed infrastructure-as-code tools include CDK, Terraform, and Pulumi. LocalStack is designed for development and testing, not production customer-facing applications. Hobby is free, offers 30+ emulated services and one personal sandbox, and is restricted to non-commercial use. AWS Base costs $39 a year, billed at $39 per license per month annually, or $45 per license per month billed monthly. LocalStack supports API, Linux, macOS, self-hosted, web, and Windows environments.
mountebank
mountebank is a free, self-hosted service-virtualization tool that supplies test doubles instead of real application dependencies. Through its HTTP API, developers configure stubs, record and replay proxies, and verify mock expectations. HTTP, HTTPS, TCP, and SMTP are built in; community plugins add LDAP, WebSockets, GraphQL, SNMP, Telnet, SSH, and NETCONF. Installation documentation covers npm and Docker. Community extensions list client libraries for C#, Clojure, Go, Java, JavaScript, Python, Ruby, TypeScript, and Swift, along with Grunt, Gradle, and Maven plugins. Stateful simulation, fault injection, and record-and-replay are supported. By default, mountebank stores everything in memory, which its site says can become a performance bottleneck at scale. Security guidance warns that JavaScript injection can permit code execution on the machine and recommends localhost-only access or an IP whitelist. CORS is disabled by default, and safe origins can be enabled explicitly.