Top 10 Testing Tools for Testing 2018 Application Programming Interfaces.
Interest in testing has been growing uncontrollably over the past few years, according to
Google Trends research. A survey conducted by Smartbear in 2017 among 5,000 software development professionals showed that over 50% of respondents use automatic API testing tools, and their number is expected to grow by 30% (from 59% to 77%) over the next two years, with 80% of survey participants indicated that they are responsible for testing API.
Having the right processes, tools, and technical solutions for automated API testing becomes more important than ever. And with the shift-left trend, API testing is becoming more than just a quality control solution; now it is a critical component of successful continuous integration and software deployment.
This article provides an overview of the best API testing tools, both with open access and commercial solutions, from which teams of testers can choose the most suitable for themselves.
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Top 5 API Testing Tools in 2018
1. SoapUI
SoapUI is a console tool designed for testing APIs and allowing users to easily test the REST and SOAP APIs, as well as Web services.
With SoapUI, users can get the complete source document and embed a preferred set of features, in addition to those listed below:
- Create a test quickly and easily using drag and drop and point-and-click methods
- Quickly create custom code with Groovy
- Powerful data-based testing: Data is loaded from files, databases, and Excel, so they can simulate user interaction and APIs.
- Creation of complex scripts and support for asynchronous testing
- Script reuse: test loading and security scanning can be reused in the case of functional testing in just a few steps.
Website:
https://www.soapui.org/Price: Free - $ 659 / year
2. Postman
Being originally a Chrome browser plugin, Postman is now expanding its technical solutions along with the original versions for both Mac and Windows.
Postman is an excellent testing API choice for those who do not want to deal with encodings in an integrated development environment using the same programming language as the developer.
- Easy to use REST client
- Rich interface makes this tool simple and convenient to use.
- It can be used both at automatic, and at research testing
- Works in applications for Mac, Windows, Linux and Chrome
- It has a package of integration tools, such as support formats Swagger and RAML
- It has the functions Run, Test, Document and Monitoring
- Does not require learning a new programming language
- Allows users to easily share experiences and knowledge with other team members, because it allows you to pack all requests and expected responses and send them to colleagues.
Website:
https://www.getpostman.com/Price: Free - $ 21 per user per month
3. Katalon Studio
Katalon Studio is a free automated testing tool that provides a common environment for creating and running UI functionality, API / Web services, and testing mobile platforms.
The ability to combine levels of UI and Business (API / Web services) for various operating environments (Windows, Mac OS, Linux) is regarded as a significant advantage of Katalon Studio over similar products.
Katalon Studio supports SOAP and RESTful queries with various types of commands (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE) with parameterized capabilities.
Basic properties:
- Support test combinations between UI and API verification.
- Support for testing both SOAP and RESTful requests.
- Hundreds of built-in keys for creating test tasks.
- Support one of AssertJ’s most powerful Assertion Claims Library for creating dynamic BDD-style statements.
- Support data driven approach.
- It can be used both at automatic, and at research testing.
- Great for both professionals and beginners.
Website:
https://www.katalon.comPrice: Free
4. Tricentis Tosca
Tricentis Tosca is a continuous testing platform for Agile and DevOps. Among the advantages of Tricentis Tosca should be noted:
- Multiple protocol array support: HTTP (s) JMS, AMQP, Rabbit MQ, TIBCO EMS, SOAP, REST, IBM MQ, NET TCP
- Integration into the Agile and DevOps cycles
- Maximize reuse and maintainability of model-based test automation tools
- API tests can be used on mobile, browser and batch applications, etc.
- Automation supported by new technologies achieved
- Reduced time required for regression testing
Website:
https://www.tricentis.com/Price: Check with the seller
5. Apigee
Apigee is a cross-cloud API testing tool that allows users to measure and test API performance, provide technical support and API development with the help of other editors such as Swagger.
- This tool is multi-step and is running Javascript.
- It allows you to develop, track, deploy and scale API
- Identifies problems by tracking API traffic, error levels and response time
- Easily creates a proxy API from the Open API Specification and scans them in the "cloud"
- Cloud deployment, local deployment, and hybrid deployment models work on the basis of a single code.
- PCI, HIPAA, SOC2, and PII for applications and APIs
- Apigee is designed specifically for the digital business and data-intensive tasks on the mobile platforms of the API and the applications that manage it.
Website:
https://apigee.com/api-management/Price: Free trial - $ 2,500 / month
6. JMeter
JMeter (open source software) is widely used for functional API testing, but it was originally designed for load testing.
- Supports playback of test results
- Automatically works with CSV files, allowing the team to quickly create unique parameter values for API testing.
- Thanks to the integration between JMeter and Jenkins, users can incorporate API tests into CI pipelining
- This tool can be used for both static and dynamic testing of resource performance.
Website:
https://jmeter.apache.org/Price: Open Source Software
7. Rest-Assured
Rest-Assured is a public domain-oriented Java language that makes the REST test service easier and more convenient.
- It has a whole set of built-in functionals, the presence of which means that the user does not have to re-encode.
- Reliably integrated with the automated Serenity platform, which allows users to combine UI and REST tests within one platform and get amazing results.
- Supports BDD Given / When / Then syntax
- Users do not need to be experts in HTTP
Website:
http://rest-assured.io/Price: Open Source Software
8. Assertible
Assertible is an API testing tool that focuses primarily on process automation and reliability.
- Provides automated API testing at every stage of the integration and software delivery process.
- Provides support for current API tests after application deployment and integrates them with familiar tools such as GitHub, Slack, and Zapier.
- Supports the authentication of HTTP responses using ready-to-confirm no-error statements, such as JSON Schema validation checks and JSON Path integrity checking
Website:
https://assertible.com/Price: Free - $ 500 / month
9. Karate DSL
Karate DSL is a new API testing tool that helps develop API-based scripts for BDD tests in a simple way, without writing stage specifications. These characteristics are created by KarateDSL itself, and therefore, users can start testing APIs easily and quickly.
- Built on top of Cucumber-JVM
- Able to run testing and generate reports like any other standard Java project.
- The test can be developed without having to be proficient in Java.
- Tests can easily be created even by non-programmers.
- Supports push / pull configuration, as well as multi-thread parallel code execution
Website: https://github.com/intuit/karate
Price: Open Source Software
10. No solution can combine all the tools.
It is painful to realize, however, it is true!
We believe that the above list represents the best solutions currently available if you decide to use the automated testing API. However, as is the case with most products in this area, finding one tool that combines all of these functions is almost impossible.
Some may find that the properties of commercial products (Postman, Tricentis Tosca, ...) will be enough, but the price of the issue will serve as a serious deterrent. Free and open-source solutions (Rest-Assured, Karate DSL, ...) are fairly acceptable, but require skilled skills and a lot of effort to implement the right platform. Tools that keep a balance between price and other factors (Katalon Studio, Postman) may have flaws for some types of projects, and these flaws require close evaluation.

Testing The API has created its own trend in the field of automated testing, and the further, the more tools will be created to meet the growing demands from software development teams. Finding the perfect tool is still difficult, but we have some good news - now your choice has become much wider than it was before. Consider your requirements carefully, weigh the pros and cons of each decision - try not to be too picky in the early stages and try the 5 best candidates from our list. When you create a list of all the pros and cons for these decisions, you will get a more adequate picture of the critical factors of your project and will be able to edit the list of tools. This approach will provide you with a good opportunity to identify the appropriate tool for the current stage and information about the next tool when your projects become more complex, complex and experienced.
I would be very pleased to hear your feedback, so - if you know other tools that can be used for similar purposes - I would appreciate your contribution to the research topic.