LocalStack vs ReadyAPI
LocalStack
localstack.cloud
ReadyAPI
smartbear.comSide by side
| Figure | LocalStack | ReadyAPI |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $2.42/mo | — |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | Yes | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 14 | 13 |
| Spec score · Service Virtualization Software | 9.1 (#2) | 8.7 (#3) |
| Spec score · Integration Testing Tools | 9.2 (#3) | 8.7 (#8) |
| CI integrations | The product page says LocalStack can run in GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, CircleCI, and Jenkins using a Docker image. | Documentation covers Docker, Jenkins, Maven, TeamCity and Azure DevOps integrations, along with Jira, MQTT, Git, Slack and Selenium plugins. |
| Company headquarters | LinkedIn lists LocalStack headquarters in Zurich and classifies it as privately held. | SmartBear lists its global headquarters at 450 Artisan Way, Somerville, Massachusetts 02145. |
| Company legal name | Crunchbase identifies the legal entity as LocalStack GmbH. | The product footer identifies the maker as SmartBear Software. |
| Company size | LinkedIn lists the company size as 51–200 employees. | LinkedIn lists SmartBear as a privately held software-development company with 501–1,000 employees and headquarters in Somerville, Massachusetts. |
| Founded | 2016 | 2003 |
| Headquarters | Zurich, Switzerland | Somerville, Massachusetts, United States |
| Integrations | Documentation covers integrations with SDKs, application frameworks, testing tools and LocalStack Extensions. | Listed integrations include Git, GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, Jira, Selenium, Jenkins, Azure DevOps, AWS Gateway, SwaggerHub, MuleSoft, Zephyr and Postman. |
| Notable news | LocalStack announced in March 2026 that its AWS Community and Pro distributions would be consolidated into one authenticated image, with the legacy Community edition no longer receiving regular updates. | SmartBear announced on September 16, 2026 that its BearQ agent could autonomously test agentic software development in Jira. |
| Rating on Capterra | 4 out of 5 from 1 reviews | 4.6 out of 5 from 5 reviews |
| Rating on G2 | 5 out of 5 from 1 reviews | 4.4 out of 5 from 73 reviews |
| Rating on TrustRadius | 10 out of 10 from 1 reviews | 6.1 out of 10 from 154 reviews and ratings |
| Self-hosting | LocalStack can run locally in Docker and can be deployed on Kubernetes through an Operator, Helm chart or Kubernetes manifests. | The documentation describes physical-hardware licensing, Docker execution and TestEngine-based execution for headless or distributed runs. |
| What it does | LocalStack runs AWS, Snowflake and Azure APIs in containers so developers can build, test and debug cloud applications without live cloud accounts. | ReadyAPI is an on-premise platform for functional, security, performance and virtualization testing of APIs in CI/CD workflows. |
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
ReadyAPI
- ReadyAPI Test - 1-Year LicensePrice not published
- ReadyAPI Test - 2-Year LicensePrice not published
- ReadyAPI Test - 3-Year LicensePrice not published
- ReadyAPI Performance - SmallPrice not published
- ReadyAPI Performance - MediumPrice not published
- ReadyAPI Performance - UnlimitedPrice not published
- ReadyAPI Virtualization - 1-Year LicensePrice not published
- API & Service Virtualization$1,415 a year
- API Functional & Security Testing$3,207 a year
- API Performance Testing Small$7,389 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.