Alternatives to Milkman
An extensible open-source desktop workbench for sending requests and inspecting responses across many protocols. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.
The original
Milkman
An extensible open-source desktop workbench for sending requests and inspecting responses across many protocols.
Replacements
Listings that take over the same core job as Milkman.
Postman
The most widely used API client, for sending HTTP requests, organising them into collections and sharing them with a team.
Postman is the most widely used API client with collections, scripts and a runner, but it is closed source, cloud-centred and lacks Milkman's database plugins.
Insomnia
An API client for REST, GraphQL and gRPC that can keep everything local or sync through Git instead of a cloud.
Insomnia is an open-source client for REST, GraphQL, gRPC and WebSockets with Git Sync and a command line tool, and has a larger user base than Milkman.
Bruno
An API client that saves collections as plain files in a folder, so Git handles the sharing instead of a cloud account.
Bruno is open source under MIT, keeps collections as plain files shared through Git, and covers REST, GraphQL, gRPC and WebSocket, though some team features are paid.
Hoppscotch
A fast API client that runs in a browser tab, with a self-hostable workspace if you want one.
Hoppscotch is open source under MIT and runs in a browser tab or desktop app, supporting HTTP, GraphQL, WebSocket, Socket.IO and MQTT, with optional self-hosting.
Yaak
An offline-first API client for REST, GraphQL, gRPC, WebSockets and SSE, with requests stored as files you can commit to git.
Yaak is an open-source offline client for REST, GraphQL, gRPC, WebSockets and SSE that stores requests as files for git, though its plugin capability is still developing.
Kreya
Desktop client for gRPC, REST, GraphQL, WebSocket and SSE APIs.
Kreya is a desktop client with strong gRPC and server reflection support and Git-friendly local project files, but it is closed source and some features need a paid licence.
Requestly
An API client for designing and testing APIs, plus a browser HTTP interceptor for modifying requests.
Requestly stores collections as local JSON files for Git, adds a browser interceptor, and supports GraphQL, SOAP and gRPC, but it is closed source with paid business features.
Similar software
Related functionality, not a direct replacement.
Newman
A command-line runner that executes Postman collections outside the Postman app.
httpYac
A command-line and VS Code client for sending HTTP, GraphQL, SOAP and gRPC requests from files.
grpcui
A command-line tool that opens an interactive browser interface for sending requests to gRPC servers.
SoapUI Open Source
An open-source desktop tool for functional testing of SOAP and REST APIs.
