The UI looks a bit outdated, it gives me vibes of some old software from 2000s somehow (probably because of the Java).
And it would be really helpful to clearly state benefits of using Milkman instead of Postman right on the home page (e.g. performance benchmarks, UX, extendability, etc.). I see that it has some users and 1.3k stars so there're definitely some cool things in Milkman, probably you could just present them better
Are API testing UIs really relevant anymore? I haven't manually tested an API for almost two years, and my APIs are SO much better. This kind of GUI is going to die over the next 5 years.
You're not wrong - I bought a Bruno "Golden Edition" for $9 two years ago pre-release... and... I just don't use it. I'm not even sure why I keep it around, at 524.5 MB
That's an interesting point. I wonder if over the next X years consumers will free up ALOT of disk space by just using agents and not needing to download and install desktop software.
Full disclosure, I'm building a desktop app called DB Pro [1] which is a modern desktop database client.
We're still doing well, and selling a lot, but we're having to think about what the next 2/3/4/5 years look like...
I'm thinking the same thing, I haven't have a need for a tool like Postman in a long time, prompting is enough at this point. I wonder what features others use from Postman that an agent can't do quickly.
Quickly eye-balling onprem responses, skipping over UIs and just eyeballing data in general is really useful. Curl can do it but with a couple headers it becomes messy, also RPCs, websockets, etc. It’s just convenient to have a single place where you can eyeball all comms.
I switched to Yaak, initially compiled it myself but now paying for it. I've not had any issues with it, does what I need and keeps out of the way. Simple yaml files in Git is also nice. I would recommend giving it a spin. I think there is a trial, and you can build it yourself, with a bit of configuring.
I would stay off Insomnia. A few versions ago, they practically took my local configuration ransom so they could force me to create a cloud account. Bruno is (still) not there, but the maintainers are slowly heading that way.
Insomnia has been around for a while but just like this post from a new account, there is a lot of push for bruno, which is usually a redflag. Never trust things that are "preached" for free.
The author appears to be suggesting that a key difference between Bruno and Insomnia is that Milkman not written in JavaScript/Electron, but rather JavaFx (i.e., Java) and thus is faster.
I wish the milkman would deliver my milk... In the morning...
You have so many machines Richard
- I got sick of all those electron-based applications - I created a JavaFx-based workbench
Oh boi
Modern JavaFX isn't your grandparents JavaFX, in fact, modern Java isn't your grandpa's Java.
So I'm my own grandpa? Whats sorcery is this?
For a Postman-like experience, I prefer Bruno: https://github.com/usebruno/bruno (not affiliated)
Never used milkman so can't say if it's better, but +1 for Bruno.
1. Very similar UX to postman (just minus the bullshit), so a very easy transition.
2. It's FOSS*
3. Most importantly of all, it has a cute dog logo.
* oof, just saw this on another comment: https://royathan.com/blog/the-api-client-hunt/
The Hurl file format seems good, any new FOSS replacements should probably build on top
The UI looks a bit outdated, it gives me vibes of some old software from 2000s somehow (probably because of the Java). And it would be really helpful to clearly state benefits of using Milkman instead of Postman right on the home page (e.g. performance benchmarks, UX, extendability, etc.). I see that it has some users and 1.3k stars so there're definitely some cool things in Milkman, probably you could just present them better
Both the application UI and website are giving open source option from 2008
It looks like a windows app running on macOS.
Are API testing UIs really relevant anymore? I haven't manually tested an API for almost two years, and my APIs are SO much better. This kind of GUI is going to die over the next 5 years.
Postman should be seriously worried.
> Are API testing UIs really relevant anymore?
We have a postman collection mainly for testers to manually verify certain aspect of a otherwise fairly unit and end-to-end test covered API.
You're not wrong - I bought a Bruno "Golden Edition" for $9 two years ago pre-release... and... I just don't use it. I'm not even sure why I keep it around, at 524.5 MB
...and... it's gone
That's an interesting point. I wonder if over the next X years consumers will free up ALOT of disk space by just using agents and not needing to download and install desktop software.
Full disclosure, I'm building a desktop app called DB Pro [1] which is a modern desktop database client.
We're still doing well, and selling a lot, but we're having to think about what the next 2/3/4/5 years look like...
[1] https://dbpro.app
I'm thinking the same thing, I haven't have a need for a tool like Postman in a long time, prompting is enough at this point. I wonder what features others use from Postman that an agent can't do quickly.
Quickly eye-balling onprem responses, skipping over UIs and just eyeballing data in general is really useful. Curl can do it but with a couple headers it becomes messy, also RPCs, websockets, etc. It’s just convenient to have a single place where you can eyeball all comms.
Looking at such ugly UI breaks my heart :(
Have you ever heard about Bruno?
Came here to say this. While not perfect, Bruno is certainly the best tool in this category that I have used :)
What is better than the existing, established alternatives https://www.usebruno.com/ and https://insomnia.rest/ ?
Not that I necessarily recommend yaak but this post explains why Bruno and Insomnia are not to be trusted: https://royathan.com/blog/the-api-client-hunt/
I switched to Yaak, initially compiled it myself but now paying for it. I've not had any issues with it, does what I need and keeps out of the way. Simple yaml files in Git is also nice. I would recommend giving it a spin. I think there is a trial, and you can build it yourself, with a bit of configuring.
I would stay off Insomnia. A few versions ago, they practically took my local configuration ransom so they could force me to create a cloud account. Bruno is (still) not there, but the maintainers are slowly heading that way.
Insomnia has been around for a while but just like this post from a new account, there is a lot of push for bruno, which is usually a redflag. Never trust things that are "preached" for free.
if you use VS Code, there are a lot of alternatives:
[0]: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=humao.re... - rest client storing config locally
[1]: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=Christia...
[2]: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=prawel.r... - same as [0], but with GUI
[3]: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=slverma....
etc.
I think Insomnia and Bruno are both non-native JS apps, I think the moat here is that "this" is not "that".
what is wrong with curl and httpie (I mean the open source cli one, no idea what the desktop one does)?
Why?
https://github.com/postmanlabs/postman-app-support/issues/14... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50354960
The author appears to be suggesting that a key difference between Bruno and Insomnia is that Milkman not written in JavaScript/Electron, but rather JavaFx (i.e., Java) and thus is faster.
What’s next garbageman?
Jokes aside, why is it better?
I think that it was posted in regards to the recent news, see: Postman silently auto-installs AI plugins and attempts to share all API data.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50354960
Spiderman?
Your GUI screenshots are squished on mobile. Stretched vertically.