Alternatives to HTTPie
Human-friendly command line HTTP client with colourised output. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.
The original
HTTPie
Human-friendly command line HTTP client with colourised output.
Replacements
Listings that take over the same core job as HTTPie.
xh
Send HTTP requests from a concise terminal interface.
xh provides a similar concise command line syntax for HTTP requests under MIT licence, though its HTTPie compatibility is not complete.
curlie
Send HTTP requests with readable syntax built around curl.
curlie offers readable formatted output built on top of curl, keeping curl options available but requiring curl to be installed.
curl
Command-line tool for transferring data with URLs, supporting dozens of protocols.
curl is present on almost every system and supports dozens of protocols, but needs more verbose options and gives plain output.
Hurl
Write HTTP requests and response checks in plain text files.
Hurl moves requests into plain text files with chaining and response assertions, suited to repeatable checks rather than quick ad hoc calls.
Restish
A command-line client for REST-style APIs that discovers operations and schemas from OpenAPI documents.
Restish is an MIT-licensed REST command-line client that generates commands from OpenAPI documents and adds auth profiles with API keys, OAuth and mTLS.
Also worth comparing
These listings name HTTPie as their own alternative, so the relationship runs both ways.
ain
A terminal HTTP API client that runs requests defined in plain-text template files.
HTTPie replaces template files with key=value arguments and colourised output, and is open source under BSD-3-Clause, but it starts slower because it is a Python application.
Posting
A keyboard-driven HTTP client with a text interface that runs in the terminal.
HTTPie drops the full-screen text interface for single commands with key=value JSON bodies and colourised output, licensed BSD-3-Clause and runs on Windows, macOS and Linux.
Similar software
Related functionality, not a direct replacement.
grpcurl
Call gRPC services from the terminal using JSON input.
Bruno
An API client that saves collections as plain files in a folder, so Git handles the sharing instead of a cloud account.
Hoppscotch
A fast API client that runs in a browser tab, with a self-hostable workspace if you want one.
Yaak
An offline-first API client for REST, GraphQL, gRPC, WebSockets and SSE, with requests stored as files you can commit to git.
Postman
The most widely used API client, for sending HTTP requests, organising them into collections and sharing them with a team.
