Article

Postman vs Smartbear 2023

August 15, 2023

Compare Smartbear and Postman automated testing tools, and choose the best QA tool for your organization.

Compare Smartbear and Postman automated testing tools, and choose the best QA tool for your organization.

If you work with APIs as a software developer, tester, or quality assurance professional, chances are you are familiar with Postman and SmartBear. These are two widely used API testing tools that offer a variety of features to help streamline the API testing process. While both tools have their own unique strengths, it is important to understand their differences in order to determine which one is the best fit for your specific project needs.

Let's dive into the comparison!

What is Postman

Postman logo

Postman is an API development tool which helps the developers to build, test, and modify APIs.With Postman, developers can execute different types of HTTP requests such as GET, POST, PUT, and PATCH, and save environments for future use. Additionally, Postman can also generate code for APIs in multiple programming languages such as JavaScript and Python. As of February 2023 Postman reports having the world's largest public API hub with over 75,000 open APIs and over 25 million registered users.

What is Smarbear 

Smartbear logo

SmartBear is known for providing powerful and user-friendly testing tools that help developers and QA professionals to deliver high-quality software products. It covers various aspects of the software development lifecycle, including functional testing, performance testing, API testing, security testing, and service virtualization.According to infosys.com Smartbear supports more than six million software professionals and over 22,000 companies in 194 countries. 

Do Postman and Smartbear use AI?

The answer for both is YES!

Postman has some features that incorporate AI (Artificial Intelligence) technology. For example, the latest update of Postman Flows has a new feature of Artificial intelligence support for FQL queries. With the "magic wand," feature creating queries for Flows has become faster and simpler. All you need to do is enter a basic text sentence as your query, and the AI will provide suggestions for your query, streamlining the process of building Flows.

As to the SmartBear, it incorporates Artificial Intelligence to speed up the process of creating, maintaining, and executing tests by introducing the first-ever Hybrid Object Recognition with AI in the industry. This technology can detect and test previously untestable components of an application.

Types of Testing Support

Postman and SmartBear both offer a wide range of testing capabilities. However, there are certain types of testing that one tool may excel at over the other. Here are some examples:

Mobile testing: SmartBear's tool, TestComplete, offers robust mobile testing capabilities for both Android and iOS platforms. Postman does not offer this type of testing.

API load testing: While Postman does offer some load testing capabilities, SmartBear's LoadNinja tool is specifically designed for load testing APIs and web applications at scale, with features such as real-time analytics and performance insights.

Test management: SmartBear's TestComplete and Zephyr tools provide test management features, such as test case management, version control, and reporting. Postman does not offer these features natively, although it can integrate with test management tools like Jira.

Web UI testing: SmartBear's TestComplete offers robust web UI testing capabilities, including cross-browser testing and visual testing. While Postman does offer some UI testing features, it is primarily focused on API testing.

Security testing: SmartBear's tools, such as ReadyAPI and Secure, offer comprehensive security testing features, including penetration testing, vulnerability scanning, and compliance testing. Postman does not offer these features natively, although it can integrate with security testing tools.

API documentation: Postman has robust API documentation capabilities, allowing developers to create and publish documentation for their APIs. SmartBear does not have this feature natively, although it can integrate with documentation tools like Swagger.

API mocking: Postman's mock servers allow developers to simulate API responses and test their applications without having to connect to a real backend. SmartBear does not have this feature natively, although it can integrate with mock server tools like WireMock.

Collaboration and sharing: Postman has built-in collaboration features, allowing developers to share their API collections and collaborate on requests and tests. While SmartBear does offer some collaboration features, they are not as extensive as Postman's.

Automation scripting: Postman has a powerful automation scripting language called JavaScript that allows developers to write custom scripts for their API tests. While SmartBear does offer automation scripting capabilities, they are not as flexible as Postman's.

End-to-end testing capabilities

Postman and SmartBear both offer end-to-end testing capabilities, but there are some differences in how they approach it.

Postman's end-to-end testing capabilities are centered around its ability to test APIs. Using Postman, developers can create API requests and tests that simulate end-to-end user scenarios.

SmartBear, however, offers end-to-end testing capabilities through a suite of tools that are designed to work together. Its suite includes tools such as TestComplete, which is a functional testing tool for desktop, web, and mobile applications, and ReadyAPI, which is an API testing tool. SmartBear's suite also includes tools for load testing, security testing, and test management.

Localization possibility 

Postman and SmartBear both offer localization testing capabilities, which allow you to test your API or application from different regions and languages.

Postman has a feature called "Global Variables" which allows you to store values for different regions and languages and use them in your API requests. This makes it easy to switch between different regions and test your API's behavior for different locales.

SmartBear's testing tools, such as TestComplete and ReadyAPI, also offer localization testing capabilities. With TestComplete, you can simulate user actions for different locales and check how your application behaves for different languages and regions.

Cloud-based or on-premises solutions?

Both Postman and Smartbear are primarily cloud-based products.

However, if you are restricted to go with cloud-based solutions, Postman suggests to work offline using the Scratch Pad feature. Additionally, you can use Newman to run collections in your private cloud or internal data centers.

If you need a more comprehensive solution, Postman offers an Enterprise app that can be installed as an MSI package for Windows or a PKG package for macOS. This version of Postman supports silent installation, system-wide installation, and additional configurations to control how Postman is installed on users' devices.

As to SmartBear, it offers on-premises solutions for some of its software testing tools. For example, its flagship functional testing tool, TestComplete, can be installed on-premises on the customer's own infrastructure.

SmartBear also offers licensing options for some of its other testing tools, such as SoapUI, LoadUI, and ServiceV, which can be installed on-premises as well.However, it's worth noting that not all of SmartBear's testing tools have on-premises solutions, and some tools are only available as cloud-based offerings. So, the availability of on-premises options may depend on the specific tool or product.

Integration capabilities 

Both Postman and SmartBear have extensive integration capabilities, and can be integrated with a wide variety of tools and services.

Some popular integrations for Postman are GitHub, Jenkins, AWS Lambda, Slack. And as for SmartBear, the following integrations are most in demand - Jenkins, JIRA, Bitbucket, Selenium. 

Pricing and free trial

Postman offers several pricing plans, including a free plan for up to 3 users. Its paid plans range from $12 to $99 USD/monthly. 

Postman also offers a 14-day free trial. At the end of your trial, you can either upgrade or maintain a team of 3 on the Free plan.

SmartBear has a diverse pricing model due to the number of products it offers, but the good news is that it provides a 14-day free trial for all of its tools, and you don't need to provide credit card details to access it. Furthermore, SmartBear has some products, such as SoapUI, that are available in a free version with limited features and functionality, which can still be useful for basic testing needs.

About the author

author photo: Tamas Cser

Tamas Cser

FOUNDER & CTO

Tamas Cser is the founder, CTO, and Chief Evangelist at Functionize, the leading provider of AI-powered test automation. With over 15 years in the software industry, he launched Functionize after experiencing the painstaking bottlenecks with software testing at his previous consulting company. Tamas is a former child violin prodigy turned AI-powered software testing guru. He grew up under a communist regime in Hungary, and after studying the violin at the University for Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, toured the world playing violin. He was bitten by the tech bug and decided to shift his talents to coding, eventually starting a consulting company before Functionize. Tamas and his family live in the San Francisco Bay Area.

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