Developers often need reliable tools for testing and documenting APIs. While Postman has been the go-to choice for many years, Bruno has emerged as a compelling alternative that addresses several pain points in the API development workflow. Bruno's approach to API testing combines the simplicity of Thunder Client with the power of Git integration, making it particularly useful for teams that want to maintain their API collections alongside their codebase.
Bruno's core strength lies in its Git-first approach to API testing. Unlike Postman's cloud-based storage system, Bruno stores all collections and environments as plain text files in your project repository. This integration means your API tests and documentation become part of your version control system naturally. When team members clone the repository, they get access to the latest API collections automatically, eliminating the need to manually sync or share collection files. This seamless integration with Git workflows makes Bruno particularly useful for teams that want to maintain strict version control over their API documentation and tests.
The tool offers impressive performance benefits compared to Postman and Thunder Client. Bruno runs as a lightweight desktop application, consuming significantly less system resources than Postman's Electron-based interface. The application starts quickly and remains responsive even when handling large collections. The user interface is straightforward, focusing on essential features without the complexity of Postman's enterprise offerings. This simplicity extends to the collection format, which uses plain folders and files instead of proprietary formats, making it easy to write scripts to generate or modify collections programmatically.
Bruno's integration with continuous integration and deployment pipelines stands out as a major advantage. Since collections are stored as text files in your repository, you can easily incorporate API testing into your CI/CD workflows. You can run Bruno collections using command-line tools, making it simple to automate API testing as part of your build process. The tool also supports environment variables and secrets management through standard Git practices, allowing you to maintain separate configurations for development, staging, and production environments. While Bruno may lack some of Postman's advanced features like mock servers and API monitoring, its focus on core functionality and developer workflow integration makes it a practical choice for teams building and maintaining REST APIs.