Pact vs Specmatic
Pact
pact.ioSpecmatic
specmatic.ioSide by side
| Figure | Pact | Specmatic |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $115.42/mo | $1.67/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 5 | 8 |
| Spec score · Contract Testing Tools | 8.7 (#2) | 7.8 (#13) |
| Spec score · Integration Testing Tools | 8.8 (#5) | 7.8 (#18) |
| Purpose | Pact is a code-first tool for testing HTTP and message integrations with contract tests. | Specmatic transforms API specifications into executable contracts for designing, building, and governing APIs. |
| Support | 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. | The Open Source plan includes standard open source support, while Enterprise includes dedicated email support with a 24-hour turnaround time. |
Plans
Pact
- PactFlow StarterFree
- Pact open-source toolingFree
- PactFlow Team (yearly)$115.42 a month
- PactFlow Team (monthly)$127 a month
- PactFlow EnterprisePriced on request
Specmatic
- Open Source (Free)Free
- Enterprise Tier — Next 1,000 Seats$20 a year
- Enterprise Tier — Next 500 Seats$30 a year
- Enterprise Tier — 251–500 Seats$40 a year
- Enterprise Tier — Next 250 Seats$40 a year
- Enterprise Tier — First 250 Seats$50 a year
- Enterprise Tier — 2,000+ Seats$120 a year
- Enterprise Tier — More than 2,000 Seats$120 a year
In their own words
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.
Specmatic
Specmatic turns API specifications into executable contracts for designing, building, and governing APIs. Its suite includes Genie, which generates API specifications from plain English; Studio for visual API workflows and contract testing; and Insights for API governance and analytics. Listed formats include OpenAPI, AsyncAPI, Avro, GraphQL SDL, Protobuf, WSDL, and Arazzo. Protocols include HTTP/REST, Kafka, gRPC, GraphQL, Google Pub/Sub, JMS, MQTT, RabbitMQ, SOAP, WebSocket, and MCP. The free Open Source plan includes contract and API resilience testing, service virtualization, backward compatibility testing, a proxy server, and a specification coverage report. Enterprise adds Studio and Insights, available as SaaS or on-premise, alongside additional protocol and workflow capabilities. The software supports Linux, macOS, Windows, and self-hosted environments, with installation options including shell and PowerShell scripts, npm, and pip. A free plan is available; the pricing note lists paid access from $10/user/mo (annual).