Fully free core product with no signup required to start testing APIs
Genuinely open source with a real, MIT-licensed self-hosted option
Broad protocol support including GraphQL, WebSocket and MQTT, not just REST
Fast, lightweight browser-based Progressive Web App
Large, active open-source community driving continuous improvement
Cons
Smaller ecosystem of third-party integrations compared to Postman
Enterprise-grade SSO and audit logging require the paid Self-Host Enterprise tier
Team collaboration and admin features are less mature than established commercial rivals
Small company size (roughly 8-20 people) behind a widely used product
Documentation and mock server tooling are less extensive than Postman's
ip-api
Pros
No signup or API key needed for the free tier
Very high request throughput and global infrastructure
Multiple output formats for easy integration
Supports both IPv4 and IPv6
Established service with over a decade of operation
Cons
Free tier prohibits commercial use
Free tier is rate-limited to 45 requests per minute
No published pricing for the Pro tier on the public site
No SSL/HTTPS on the free endpoint
Use Cases
Hoppscotch
Quick API testing without installation — Developers open Hoppscotch in the browser to send and inspect API requests instantly without creating an account.
Self-hosted API testing for compliance — Security-conscious organizations self-host Hoppscotch to keep all API request and response data on their own infrastructure.
CI/CD API test automation — Teams use the Hoppscotch CLI to run collections and assertions automatically as part of continuous integration pipelines.
ip-api
Non-commercial IP lookups — Look up location data for personal projects or internal tools without an API key.
Proxy/hosting detection — Flag traffic coming from proxies or hosting providers for basic fraud checks.
Commercial-scale geolocation — Upgrade to the Pro tier for unlimited, SSL-secured lookups in production products.