Top 11 API Testing Tools For 2022

This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by DEV Community

My team is created a RESTful API that is Newsdata.io news API to fetch and download news data and we have used a few of these API testing tools to test our APIs that is why I am sharing a list of the top 11 API testing tools in 2022.

With the rise of cloud applications and interconnected platforms, API testing has become critical. Many of the services we use on a daily basis rely on multiple interconnected APIs, so if even one of them fails, the entire service is jeopardized. API testing has become essential for software developers in order to ensure that APIs perform as expected.

The number of API testing tools available today can be overwhelming, so how do you choose the best one? Don’t worry, we’ve compiled a list of the best API testing tools to help you get your work done faster. Let’s go over the fundamentals of API testing before we look at the top 15 API testing tools in 2022.

What is an API?

API is an abbreviation for Application Programming Interface. It is a software interface that allows two applications to communicate with one another without the need for user intervention.

APIs enable a product or service to communicate with other products and services without requiring knowledge of how they are implemented.

It facilitates communication between the provider and the client. It is a type of software interface that provides a service to other programs. An API specification is a document or standard that describes how to build or use such a connection or interface.

An API is said to be implemented or exposed by a computer system that meets this standard. API can refer to either the specification or the implementation.

Features of API

• An API acts as a go-between, facilitating data exchange between two different applications.
• An API makes it easier to embed content from any website or application.
• It allows a company or user to personalize the content and services they use the most.
• APIs anticipate future software changes (updates).
• APIs are simple, adaptable, and simple to use.
• It offers excellent developer support.
• APIs that do not function efficiently and effectively, regardless of whether they are free to use, will never be adopted. As a result, API testing is critical because API testing improves the overall effectiveness of a testing strategy, resulting in faster software development.

What is API Testing?

API (Application Programming Interface) testing directly tests APIs to determine whether or not the API developed meets certain requirements in terms of application functionality, performance, security, and reliability. API testing, in essence, detects bugs, inconsistencies, or deviations from an API’s expected behavior.

Unlike GUI (Graphical User Interface) tests, API tests are primarily concerned with the Business logic layer of the software architecture rather than the look and feel of the application.
It is critical for software companies to have a product that meets expectations.

In this regard, API testing is critical for integration testing because it determines whether or not the business logic is followed correctly. Because API testing is a complicated subject, we cannot test it manually and must instead rely on API testing tools. As a result, you should use the best API testing tools available.

Top API Testing Tools

1. Postman

Postman, which began as a Google Chrome plug-in, has evolved into one of the most popular API testing tools. With the primary goal of testing API services, it has expanded its services to include native Windows and Mac versions. In either case, it’s an excellent choice for exploratory or manual testing. You can use Postman to monitor APIs, automate tests, debug, and run requests. It has a lot of features, it’s free, and it’s highly rated by users.

Feature

• Postman supports the creation of Boolean tests without the use of a command line.
• Postman’s interface can be used to extract API data.
• This platform includes built-in tools that allow you to interact with an API, collections that allow you to automate tests, debug, monitor APIs, and run requests, and workspaces that allow you to collaborate.
• APIs can be designed using the Swagger and RAML (RESTful API Modeling Language) formats.
• A user-friendly REST client.

2. SoapUI

SoapUI is a functional testing tool that is the world’s leading SOAP and REST testing solution. It essentially functions as a headless API testing tool. With SoapUI’s user-friendly graphical interface and enterprise-class features, you can quickly and easily create and execute automated functional, regression, and load tests.

SOAPUI supports a variety of protocols and technologies for testing all types of APIs. The SOAPUI interface is simple to use, so both technical and non-technical users can benefit from it.

Feature

• Its point-and-click and drag-and-drop functionality simplifies complex tasks (such as working with JSON and XML) and allows for the rapid creation of tests.
• Loading data from Excel, files, and databases allows you to simulate how customers interact with your APIs.
• The free package provides access to the complete source code of SoapUI.
• Data-driven testing is effective because it loads data from databases, Excel spreadsheets, and files to simulate user interaction with APIs.
• Data-driven testing is supported by SoapUI.
• REST (Representational State Transfer), SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol), JMS (Java Messaging Protocol), JDBC (Java Database Connectivity), and numerous other protocols are supported.

3. Apigee

Apigee is a cross-cloud API development and management tool provided by Google. Apigee allows its users to access its features through other editors such as Swagger. Users can use Swagger to measure, test, build, and support APIs. It also added TLS (Transport Layer Security) security, Open API 3.0 support, virtual host management improvements, and more software support to provide users with even more flexibility when managing their APIs. The application allows you to create and configure API packages, revenue models, reports, payment gateways, and integrations with developer portals.

Feature

• To identify performance issues, monitor API traffic, error rates, and response times.
• Allows you to create and deploy API proxies in the cloud using the Open API Specification.
• On-premises (in a private cloud) or in the cloud, with a hybrid deployment model used occasionally.
• There is a customizable developer portal as well as Node.js support.
• Apigee is capable of handling APIs with a large amount of data.

4. Tricentis Tosca

Tricentis Tosca makes it simple to incorporate continuous testing into Agile and DevOps. It is a software testing tool that supports HTTP, AMQP (Advanced Message Queuing Protocol), SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol), and many other protocols.

Multiple aspects of software testing (test case design, automation, data generation, and analytics) are used in this approach to analyze GUIs and APIs from a business standpoint. It provides comprehensive test case functionality to ensure an efficient test management process. It enables no-code, script-free end-to-end test automation.

Feature

• With model-based test automation, maximizes reuse and simplifies scrip maintenance.
• Allows API tests to be run across mobile, cross-browser, and packaged apps to provide end-to-end testing.
• Ensures that regression tests are completed in a timely and efficient manner.
• Test managers can use this tool to perform manual testing without having to set up Tosca environments.
• Through the use of new technology, it is possible to achieve long-term automation.

5. Katalon Studio

Katalon Studio is a free tool for automating web service, application, and mobile app testing. It is quickly becoming the go-to tool for API/Web services testing because it offers the comprehensive solution that developers and testers require. It includes all frameworks, ALM integrations, and plugins in a single package, making deployment a breeze. It provides an API testing platform that is simple to use for anyone.

Feature

• It supports commands and parameterizes functions in addition to SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) and REST (Representational State Transfer) requests.
• It enables the integration of UI and API/Web services across multiple platforms, including Windows, Mac OS, and Linux.
• AssertJ, one of the most powerful assertion libraries, should be supported so that you can create fluent assertions in a BDD style.
• This can be used for both automated and exploratory testing.
• The approach based on data is encouraged.

6. JMeter

JMeter is an open-source tool developed by Apache that is used to analyze and test the performance of software applications, products, and services. Originally designed for load testing, this tool is now widely used for functional API testing. There is a plethora of API testing functionality available, as well as additional features to enhance the process. This tool can be used to test JDBC database connections as a unit-testing tool. JMeter version 5.4 was released in December 2020, with bug fixes and core enhancements.

Feature

• Users can include API tests in CI pipelines by integrating JMeter with Jenkins.
• The tool is extremely adaptable, allowing testers to tailor it to their specific needs.
• It can be used to test performance with both dynamic and static resources.
• It is ideal for working with CSV files and enables teams to create unique parameter values for testing.
• It runs load and performance tests on a wide range of server platforms.

7. Rest-Assured

If you want to test RESTful services in Java, you should look into Rest-assured. It is an open-source platform that provides Java domain-specific languages to make testing REST services easier. It is frequently used to test JSON and XML-based applications.

Feature

• Users do not need to write code from scratch because of its built-in functionality.
• It provides a number of authentication methods for testing and validating a secure API.
• It supports all HTTP methods, but it also explicitly supports several command types, including POST, GET, PUT, DELETE, OPTIONS, and PATCH.
• Supports the Serenity automation framework’s seamless integration.
• It supports Given/When/Then test notation, which immediately makes your tests human-readable.

8. Assertible

Assertible offers simple and dependable API uptime and performance monitoring. It continuously tests web services and places a premium on automation and dependability. Assertible announced Encrypted variables in October 2019, a new feature that provides a new option for storing tokens, passwords, and secret fields required for API testing. It has long been recognized as a dependable API tool.

Feature

• Assertible supports the automation of API tests at every stage, from continuous integration to the delivery pipeline.
• API tests can also be run after the application has been deployed.
• Integrations with tools such as GitHub, Slack, and Zapier, among others, are possible.
• Support HTTP response validation with turn-key assertions such as JSON Schema validation and JSON Path integrity checks.
• Users no longer have to manually update their tests after adding new parameters or changing the API response as a result of the Sync feature.
• Assertible makes API testing simple and effective.

9. Karate DSL

Karate DSL is a unified framework for testing API automation, mocks, performance, and load. It has never been easy to create test scenarios for API-based BDD. Karate, on the other hand, already has all of the step definitions written for developers, so we don’t have to worry about writing them ourselves.

This tool, created by Intuit, is specifically designed for automated API testing. This tool does not require users to have any programming skills. However, having a basic understanding of HTTP, JSON, XML, XPath, and JsonPath is advantageous.

Feature

• Tests can be written in virtually any language that supports HTTP, JSON, or XML.
• It has strong assertion capabilities.
• Configuration switching and staging, as well as parallel multi-threading execution, are all supported.
• Testing and report generation are supported in the same way that other Java projects are.
• With this tool, users can reuse payload data and user-defined functions across tests.
• This tool does not necessitate any programming knowledge.

10. Swagger

Swagger is a web-based API testing tool that allows users to test functionality, security, and performance directly from the open API specification. Swagger tooling and the Ready API platform make it easier to quickly create, manage, and execute API tests. Swagger assists you throughout the API lifecycle.

Feature

• Swagger Inspector allows you to inspect API response requests and ensure they function properly.
• Import user API definitions to validate schema rules.
• Automatically generating assertions against endpoints and injecting synthetic data into parameters.
• Creating complex load scenarios in order to evaluate API performance.
• All types of services are supported, including REST, SOAP, and GraphQL.

11. ReadyAPI

ReadyAPI is a no-code API testing platform that is designed to simplify your testing workflows. You can test RESTful, SOAP, GraphQL, and other web services for functionality, security, and load using SmartBear’s ReadyAPI platform. API functional testing, API performance testing, API security testing, and API & Web virtualization are just a few of the tools available with this user-friendly platform. By utilizing this platform, you can ensure the quality of all web services from beginning to end. You will also be able to create data-driven and comprehensive API tests.

Feature

• With its Smart Assertion feature, this tool can quickly generate bulk assertions against hundreds of APIs.
• It natively supports Git, Jenkins, Docker, Azure, and other services.
• There is also command-line support for automated testing.
• Parallel execution is available for both functional tests and job queues.
• Furthermore, it includes features and functionalities that enable the reuse of functional tests as well as the generation of realistic load scenarios.
• During testing and development, ReadyAPI also allows you to remove dependencies.

Conclusion

API testing has established a trend for automated testing as software development teams become more technologically oriented. More tools will be developed to meet these requirements.

Regardless of how difficult it is to find a tool that can do everything, adopting a toolset that meets a company’s needs while increasing revenue is critical. Before choosing one, consider how each API testing tool may be better suited for specific purposes and what features are essential for your software development workflows.

References

1. https://www.interviewbit.com/blog/api-testing-tools/
2. https://rajat-testprepkart.medium.com/top-api-testing-tools-in-2022-1fc455c2b65e
3. https://newsdata.io/

This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by DEV Community