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Dev tools · alternatives · 2026

24 alternatives to RestForge

Your APIs. Your machine. Nobody else's business.

Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes.

  1. 1

    Last time I posted this it didn't garner much interest. There have been lots of improvements and fixes since the last release. Quick list of features: - Workspaces - Tabs - Nested Folders - Lots of context menus - Response history - Plugins - Runs fully in the browser and runs offline if necessary - Chrome and Firefox extension to bypass CORS restrictions - Desktop builds for all platforms - GraphQL support - Import collections exported from Postman and Insomnia - Simple user friendly interface I built this because I love Insomnia but wanted a portable version that I could run in the…

    2022 · restfox.dev · its alternatives →

  2. 2
    InsForge▲622

    We built InsForge because we wanted to use pure prompts to build a production-grade app faster. In practice, AI isn’t reliable enough when generating code or configuring backend pieces like schema, RLS, auth, or functions. Postgres MCP and Supabase MCP are a good starting point, but they felt more like API wrappers for agents than something designed to guide AI safely through backend tasks. So we built our own MCP server on top of Postgres and added a set of context-engineering tools to make prompt-driven workflows more predictable. It gradually turned into a Postgres-based BaaS. Key…

    Mar 2026 · insforge.dev · its alternatives →

  3. 3
    Postman▲182

    Postman is a powerful HTTP client to test REST API

    2014 · postman.com · its alternatives →

  4. 4

    A URL shortener API you can depend on

    2020 · shorten.rest · its alternatives →

  5. 5

    Ppen-source, privacy-first API client

    Jul 2026 · httpforge.com · its alternatives →

  6. 6

    100% native, localfirst rest api client for mac, windows and linux. Supports multiple environmets, custom http methods, proxy server, offline mode and customizable themes. It's file first, you can import your collections and get started using NativeRest.

    2023 · nativesoft.com · its alternatives →

  7. 7
    Restfox▲69

    Browser based HTTP client inspired by Insomnia and Postman

    2022 · restfox.dev · its alternatives →

  8. 8

    Leading Open Source API Development Platform for HTTP, REST, GraphQL, gRPC, SOAP, and WebSockets

    2017 · insomnia.rest · its alternatives →

  9. 9

    Hey HN! Aldin here, a helping hand to Voiden (https://voiden.md) Voiden is a free, offline, Git-native API client. Your API definitions, docs, and tests all live together. It came out of years of frustration: cloud sync lock-in, paywalled basics, bloated UIs, and lag on even simple requests. So the team built the opposite: an offline tool with no login, no telemetry, no lock-in. Just markdown and hotkeys. It behaves like code: local files, git branches, no cloud nonsense. Terminal is built-in, so you can commit, diff, and push changes right from the app. Docs stay close to your…

    2025 · voiden.md · its alternatives →

  10. 10

    Simple online database service in the cloud with NoSQL, REST API, low code javascript hooks, MongoDB support and more. Perfect for API automation, custom development, enterprise, backoffice, serverless backends, database driven websites. It provides easy collaboration and data management with secure

    2016 · restdb.io · its alternatives →

  11. 11

    Low code self-hosted backend API to build web apps

    2023 · its alternatives →

  12. 12

    Creator here. I was looking for something as simple as Backblaze Personal [1] but privacy focused and open source. This is my attempt to build that. Uses PyQt6 [2] for the GUI and Pyinstaller [3] for creating the platform specific binaries. The backup engine under the hood is Restic [4]. The server code is written in Laravel [5]. All the code is on GitHub [6]. I actually really like Backblaze (even use B2 for this offering behind the scenes) so this isn't meant to throw shade their way. Just wanted a private open source alternative. Something like Bitwarden but for backups. [1]…

    2022 · blobbackup.com · its alternatives →

  13. 13
    Hyperform▲185

    Host your websites, APIs and apps serverlessly

    2021 · github.com · its alternatives →

  14. 14

    Apicat is the ultimate offline Postman alternative that stores your .http files locally. It’s Git-friendly, open-source, and highly compatible with Postman. Test APIs offline with this powerful free offline API client designed for developers who need a reliable local API testing tool.

    2025 · apicat.com · its alternatives →

  15. 15
    restdb.io▲131

    Simple online NoSQL database backend

    2016 · restdb.io · its alternatives →

  16. 16

    Build and deploy local AI agents offline

    Oct 2025 · jaydenfire66.gumroad.com · its alternatives →

  17. 17

    Simple secure app for API management + testing for humans

    2019 · resthuman.com · its alternatives →

  18. 18

    nFreezer is an encrypted-at-rest backup tool. Contribute to josephernest/nfreezer development by creating an account on GitHub.

    2020 · github.com · its alternatives →

  19. 19
    BackAnt▲93

    Your browser-based Software Developer

    2025 · its alternatives →

  20. 20

    Hi HN, I'm Hang, cofounder of InsForge (YC P26). InsForge is an open-source Heroku for AI coding agents: a backend platform designed for coding agents to deploy, operate, and debug end-to-end. Open source under Apache 2.0 (https://github.com/InsForge/InsForge). Quick demo here (https://youtu.be/7Bax5qz0IfM). We started InsForge because we just wanted our Claude Code to handle all the backend / infra stuff for us, instead of us jumping between dashboards doing manual config, or copy paste logs and docs back to agents. We first tried creating a folder…

    May 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →

  21. 21IR

    Sharing an internal tool that accelerated my development work 10-fold, especially with API debugging. Thought fellow developers here might find it useful. As a developer, I often have trouble reproducing errors at the client end. https://intercept.rest lets me debug and monitor API requests and responses. It is similar to the Network tab in Chrome Developer Tools but works for any API: mobile apps, webhooks, frontend etc. After I shared it with a close circle of friends, they found it incredibly useful and even found new use cases, I never imagined. Been a long time lurker here and…

    2018 · its alternatives →

  22. 22

    Terminal API client for HTTP, GraphQL and gRPC. Plain .http files you can diff and version, with workflows, mocks, profiling, tracing, OpenAPI import, SSH tunnels, Kubernetes port-forwards, WebSocket, SSE and a CLI runner. - unkn0wn-root/resterm

    2025 · github.com · its alternatives →

  23. 23
    Speedy▲61

    The Backend you always wanted for your web and mobile apps..

    2023 · its alternatives →

  24. 24

    Hi HN, We have open-sourced Voiden. Most API tools are built like platforms. They are heavy because they optimize for accounts, sync, and abstraction - not for simple, local API work. Voiden treats API tooling as files. It’s an offline-first, Git-native API tool built on Markdown, where specs, tests, and docs live together as executable Markdown in your repo. Git is the source of truth. No cloud. No syncing. No accounts. No telemetry.Just Markdown, Git, hotkeys, and your damn specs. Voiden is extensible via plugins (including gRPC and WSS). Repo:…

    Feb 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →

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Ranked by how close each launch is in meaning, then by votes. Prices were read from each product’s own site when checked and can change. Refine with your own description →