Alternatives to Stoplight
A web platform for designing OpenAPI descriptions, generating API documentation and running mock servers. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.
The original
Stoplight
A web platform for designing OpenAPI descriptions, generating API documentation and running mock servers.
Replacements
Listings that take over the same core job as Stoplight.
Insomnia
An API client for REST, GraphQL and gRPC that can keep everything local or sync through Git instead of a cloud.
Insomnia offers an OpenAPI editor with visual preview, test suites and mocking in an open source desktop client rather than a hosted platform.
Postman
The most widely used API client, for sending HTTP requests, organising them into collections and sharing them with a team.
Postman generates documentation and mock servers from collections, centred on request collections rather than spec-first OpenAPI design.
Swagger UI
Renders an OpenAPI description as interactive, testable documentation.
Swagger UI is free Apache-2.0 software that renders OpenAPI as interactive docs and can be self-hosted, but offers no editor or mocks.
Apidog
An API platform for designing, debugging, mocking and testing APIs, with desktop and web clients.
Apidog is also closed source and freemium, combining API design and mocking with debugging and testing, and offers a desktop client as well as the web version.
Also worth comparing
These listings name Stoplight as their own alternative, so the relationship runs both ways.
Mockbin
A free web tool that creates mock API endpoints with fixed responses and logs requests to them.
Stoplight runs mock servers from OpenAPI descriptions within a design and documentation platform, but requires an account and targets teams.
Mockoon
A desktop app and CLI for designing and running mock REST APIs locally without an account.
Stoplight generates mock servers from OpenAPI descriptions alongside design and docs hosting, but it is a hosted service requiring an account.
Prism
An open-source mock server and validation proxy built from OpenAPI documents and Postman collections.
Stoplight provides mock servers from API descriptions inside a hosted web platform with a visual OpenAPI editor and documentation, but requires an account and is closed source.
Swagger Editor
A browser-based editor for writing OpenAPI definitions and sending live requests to the API.
Stoplight offers a visual OpenAPI editor with mock servers and documentation hosting, but it is a hosted service requiring an account and aimed at teams.
Similar software
Related functionality, not a direct replacement.
Beeceptor
A web service for creating mock API servers and inspecting incoming webhook requests in real time.
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.
Scalar API Client
An open-source, OpenAPI-aware API client for sending and testing HTTP requests, from the Scalar API platform.
