If you are reading this article, you are likely interested in API testing and API monitoring and have tried API Fortress in the past. This article will review the top 4 API Fortress alternatives for API testing and monitoring purposes.
What is API Fortress
API Fortress is a No-code tool for API testing & monitoring. DevOps, software testers, and QA engineers can use API Fortress to test their HTTP APIs, including Restful and GraphQL. As mentioned earlier, API Fortress is a no-code tool; it offers a GUI to define test cases and run them. In addition, API Fortress provides a range of features that enable software teams to test their deployed API in both production and non-production environments. Moreover, API Fortress can monitor your APIs by running test cases in the background. API Fortress is available as self-hosted and cloud software.
We have talked to multiple users of API Fortress, and these are some of the main reasons they looked for an API Fortress alternative.
- API Fortress does not offer a free plan
- API Fortress can be expensive for small teams
- Not all features of API Fortress are offered to the cloud users
- It’s not straightforward to test local APIs using API Fortress (requires running an agent)
What API Fortress offers
Earlier, we briefly went through a range of API Fortress’s features for API testing and monitoring, but we didn’t go into details. In this section, we go through the API Fortress features in more detail. Our goal is to give you a better picture of API Fortress features and features you might be interested in when exploring API Fortress alternatives.
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| API Testing | API Fortress allows you to define test cases in their editor. A test case is a combination of HTTP request(s) and validations (assertion). |
| API Monitoring | API Fortress allows you to run your tests in the background and receive notifications when defined validations fail. |
| Validations | This feature will enable you to validate response body, response headers, and other components of HTTP responses |
| Environments | This feature allows you to define variables and use them within your tests. You can use it for better maintainability and test multiple environments using one test |
| Alerts | Using this feature, you can receive alerts (via different mediums) as soon as one of your API monitoring tasks fail |
| Fake Data | Using fake data generators, you can send a new set of data to your API every time a test runs to make the test close to actual use cases of your API |
| User Permission | Invite your colleagues and give them different access levels |
| Request Chaining | Using request chaining, you can have a test with multiple HTTP requests. Moreover, you can read values from one request and use them within other steps |
With the features list out of our way, let’s go ahead and review some of API Fortress alternatives. Please remember that it’s almost impossible to find two identical solutions for the same problem, including the API Fortress alternatives in our list. Therefore, we highly recommend picking tools based on what you need today and what you will probably need in the future rather than finding an API Fortress alternative that offers the same features as API Fortress.
Testfully
Website: testfully.io | Pricing: Free, Paid plans start from $49 a month
Testfully is the youngest member of API testing & monitoring club. We have been in production since December 2020, and during our 3-month private beta launch before the public release, our platform executed over 300,000 tests for our customers. Despite being the youngest, we’re one of the richest tools in terms of feature set for API testing & monitoring.
Testfully is a No Code tool; unlike many other testing tools, you don’t need to know programming to define your test cases. Testfully enables software tests to test their APIs while building them and post-release to production and non-production environments. When it comes to API monitoring, Testfully allows you to run numerous test cases to monitor the correctness and performance of your running API.
Testfully Pros, compared to API Fortress
- Testfully offers a generous free plan to help you get started for free
- Our paid plans are way more affordable than API Fortress
- Testfully is a SaaS, and , all of our features, are available to all of our users (including users in free plan)
- Testfully supports GraphQL natively while API Fortress treats GraphQL APIs like any other HTTP APIs
- Testfully can test your local APIs without need for any extra tool
Postman
Website: postman.com | Price: Free, Paid plans start from $15 (per month, per user)
If you have ever worked with API, either by building or consuming them, you have likely heard of Postman as it’s the HTTP client defacto for many developers. However, you might not know that Postman offers API testing and API monitoring features. To test your API using Postman automatically, you need to be familiar with Javascript. Postman takes an approach that requires you to write code (in Javascript and using Postman’s framework) to test APIs. You can also monitor your APIs using Postman by creating monitoring tasks via UI and scheduling them to run in desired intervals. If you are interested in using Postman, we highly recommend reading the top Postman alternatives article as we have reviewed some of the best alternatives for Postman.
Postman Pros, compared to API Fortress
- Postman offers a free plan which includes API testing and monitoring
- Postman’s paid plans are relatively cheaper than API Fortress
- You can test your local APIs without any other tool
Postman cons, compared to API Fortress
- Postman requires programming knowledge in Javascript for API testing
- Postman does not support request chaining at all
Asserible
Website: assertible.com | Pricing: Free, Paid plans start from $25 a month
Assertible is also one of the newest API testing & monitoring club members, a tool dedicated to API testing and monitoring. Assertible is similar to API Fortress and Testfully as it does not require programming knowledge for API testing. Moreover, Assertible offers API monitoring to run your APIs as well. For a more in-depth review of Assertible from the API monitoring point of view, please read our best API monitoring tools article.
Assertible Pros, compared to API Fortress
- Assertible offers a free plan which includes API testing and monitoring
- Assertible’s paid plans are relatively cheaper than API Fortress
Asserible cons, compared to API Fortress
- You cannot do request chaining with Assertible
- You cannot test your local API using Assertible (it requires using a 3rd-party HTTP proxy)
Katalon Studio
Website: katalan.com | Pricing: Free, Paid plans start from $599 per license/year.
Katalan Studio is a desktop application for testing web, mobile, API, and desktop applications. Katalon Studio uses a programming language called Groovy for API validation, so it’s essential to know Groovy. Moreover, Katalon does not offer any solution for API monitoring. If you are looking for an API Fortress alternative for API testing, we highly recommend reading the top API testing tools article as we have a more in-depth review of Katalon Studio and a couple of other relevant tools.
Katalon Studio Pros, compared to API Fortress
- Katalon offers a free plan
Katalon cons, compared to API Fortress
- You need to know the Groovy programming language
- You cannot monitor your APIs using Katalon Studio
- You cannot test local APIs using Katalon studio
API Fortress vs. Testfully vs. Assertible vs. Postman vs. Katalon Studio
In this section, we compare the four tools together. The table below lists some of the most command features of API testing and monitoring tools.
| Feature | Testfully | API Fortress | Postman | Assertible | Katalon Studio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| API Testing | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Testing local API | Yes | Yes (requires extra tool) | Yes | Yes (using HTTP proxy) | No |
| API Monitoring | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Validations | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Environments | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Alerts | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Fake Data | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| User Permission | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Request Chaining | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes |