Yaak
An offline-first API client for REST, GraphQL, gRPC, WebSockets and SSE, with requests stored as files you can commit to git.
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2 more ways to get Yaak
Package managers
- Chocolatey
choco install yaak - Homebrew
brew install --cask yaak
About Yaak
Yaak is a direct answer to what people dislike about Postman. It is offline-first, has no telemetry, no VC funding and no cloud lock-in, and it stores your requests on your own machine in a format you can version with git, so a team shares an API collection the same way it shares code.
It handles REST, GraphQL, gRPC, WebSockets and Server-Sent Events, imports existing collections from Postman, Insomnia, OpenAPI, Swagger or curl, filters responses with JSONPath or XPath, and keeps secrets in the operating system keychain. It is built with Tauri and Rust rather than Electron, so it is light.
It is MIT licensed, and development is funded by community-purchased licences rather than by holding features back.
Strengths
- Requests are stored as files on your machine, so a git repository is the shared collection
- REST, GraphQL, gRPC, WebSocket and Server-Sent Events in one client
- Imports from Postman, Insomnia, OpenAPI, Swagger and curl
- No telemetry and no cloud account; secrets live in the OS keychain
Limitations
- A much younger project than Postman, with a smaller community
- No hosted collaboration features if that is what you actually want
- Some advanced scripting and plugin capability is still developing
- Team features rely on your own git workflow rather than a product
Details
- Pricing
- FreemiumYaak is MIT licensed and free to build and use. Development is funded by community-purchased licences, which are optional.
- License
- MIT
- Developer
- Yaak
- Platforms
- Windows, macOS, Linux
- How it runs
- Downloadable app
- Account
- Not required
- Works offline
- Yes
- Best suited for
- API testing where the collection belongs in your repository, not in a vendor's cloud
- Categories
- API clients
- Last verified
- Added
- Provenance
- Selected from the TechWalrus downloads catalog (Dev Tools); facts checked against the developer's own pages, 3 sources on file.
Alternatives to Yaak
Compare allSoftware that can replace Yaak for an important use case, and what changes if you switch.
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 also MIT licensed and offline only, storing collections as Bru markup files in Git, with a command line runner.
Insomnia
An API client for REST, GraphQL and gRPC that can keep everything local or sync through Git instead of a cloud.
Insomnia adds an OpenAPI editor, test suites and mocking, with Git Sync optional, though most features expect an account.
Postman
The most widely used API client, for sending HTTP requests, organising them into collections and sharing them with a team.
Postman offers hosted collaboration, documentation and mock servers, but it is closed source and stores collections in its cloud by default.
Hoppscotch
A fast API client that runs in a browser tab, with a self-hostable workspace if you want one.
Hoppscotch runs in a browser tab or self-hosted, adding MQTT and Socket.IO, but lacks gRPC support.
Kreya
Desktop client for gRPC, REST, GraphQL, WebSocket and SSE APIs.
Kreya offers Git-friendly local files and strong gRPC reflection, but it is closed source with some paid features.
Thunder Client
Lightweight REST and GraphQL client built into VS Code.
Thunder Client runs inside VS Code and JetBrains editors with repository-stored collections, but is closed source and REST and GraphQL only.
RapidAPI for Mac
Native macOS HTTP client, formerly Paw, with code generation and team sync.
RapidAPI for Mac is a free native macOS client with code generation and team sync, but closed source and macOS only.
Yaak as an alternative
Listings that name Yaak as an alternative.
grpcurl
Call gRPC services from the terminal using JSON input.
Yaak is an MIT licensed desktop client with gRPC support and requests stored as git-committable files, replacing terminal use with a GUI.
Hurl
Write HTTP requests and response checks in plain text files.
Yaak stores requests as git-committable files in a desktop GUI supporting REST, GraphQL and gRPC, with scripting still developing.
Similar software
Related functionality, not necessarily a direct replacement.
HTTPie
Human-friendly command line HTTP client with colourised output.
curl
Command-line tool for transferring data with URLs, supporting dozens of protocols.
Swagger UI
Renders an OpenAPI description as interactive, testable documentation.
