Stoplight helps teams design, document, and mock APIs with a design-first workflow. See Stoplight pricing, features, and how it fits into SmartBear.
Stoplight is a platform for designing, documenting, and mocking APIs using a design-first methodology. Rather than writing code first and documenting it afterward, teams use Stoplight to define an API's contract with OpenAPI specifications first, then build implementation against that agreed-upon design.
Founded in 2015 in Austin, Texas by Marc MacLeod, Stoplight grew into a platform used by API platform teams, developer experience teams, and enterprises standardizing API governance. In August 2023, SmartBear announced its acquisition of Stoplight, combining Stoplight's design-first tooling with SmartBear's existing API testing, documentation, and portal products.
Stoplight includes a visual OpenAPI editor, interactive API documentation, and instant mock servers that let frontend and backend teams work in parallel from an agreed API contract. Reusable style guides, shared components, and models help large organizations enforce consistency across many APIs.
For larger teams, Stoplight adds multi-branch support, custom domains, activity logs, and single sign-on through LDAP or SAML, along with shared style guides and component libraries that scale governance across up to 20 teams on higher plans.
Stoplight offers a free plan limited to 1 user and 1 project with core design and documentation features. The Basic plan is priced around 44 US dollars per month billed annually or 56 US dollars per month billed monthly, and includes 3 users with additional users available at roughly 11 US dollars per month each on annual billing.
The Startup plan is priced around 113 US dollars per month annually or 147 US dollars monthly for 8 users, and adds private projects, multi-branch support, and custom domains. The Pro Team plan is priced around 362 US dollars per month annually or 453 US dollars monthly for 15 users, adding SSO, shared style guides, and component libraries. Enterprise pricing is custom, with unlimited projects and teams. All paid plans include a 14-day free trial.
Stoplight is used to design, document, and mock APIs using a design-first workflow, letting teams agree on an API contract before writing implementation code.
No. Stoplight was acquired by SmartBear in 2023, and its design, mocking, and governance capabilities are being integrated into SmartBear's broader API development platform.
Yes, Stoplight offers a free plan for 1 user and 1 project with core design and documentation features.
Paid plans range from roughly 44 US dollars per month for the Basic tier to roughly 362 US dollars per month for the Pro Team tier, depending on billing cycle and user count, with custom Enterprise pricing above that.
Stoplight was founded in 2015 by Marc MacLeod in Austin, Texas.
Yes, Stoplight can generate instant mock servers directly from an OpenAPI specification.
Publicly referenced Stoplight customers include Calendly, Schneider Electric, Fiserv, and PagerDuty.