Bruno: The New Dog in the API IDE World

Bruno is the new dog in the API IDE space. They like to call themselves an alternative to Postman and Insomnia, and to be honest, they absolutely deserve that title.

Bruno is an open-source tool to play with your APIs. I’ve been using Bruno for the last 2 months, and in this post, I’ll express my honest two-month experience.

I was a Postman lover for 8 long months, and today, I’ll be sharing my love and hate relationship with both Postman and Bruno.

Why I Moved From Postman?

Just one reason, Postman requires an internet connection.
I loved Postman, but my current location has poor network connectivity. This single issue made API testing a nightmare.

As a backend developer, I was spending most of my time just trying to test APIs instead of building them. And by testing, I mean simply trying to connect to Postman’s servers.

This is a major issue that makes no sense!
As backend developers, we often run our servers on localhost. But Postman still requires an active internet connection to run and test those localhost APIs.
Honestly, that’s just shameful.

Why I Moved To Bruno

I’m still an open source guy. I love open source software, and I discovered Bruno through Rising Stars of JavaScript. Bruno immediately solved my first problem, it works completely offline.

Bruno is an offline tool. There’s no concept of a login or account, and there is no cloud connection or syncing of the work you do in Bruno. ~ useBruno

Bruno stores all requests and collections in .bru files. And if you ever need to collaborate with someone, sharing these .bru files is more than enough, no cloud, no sync issues, no fuss.

Why I Still Love Postman

Postman is a mature product. It has a strong presence in the industry, and many teams prefer it due to its streamlined workflow and ecosystem integrations.

Postman’s user interface is top notch.
This becomes obvious the moment you start using Bruno. While Bruno’s functionality is solid, its UI is nowhere near as polished as Postman’s. I’m usually not a UI focused guy, but in this case, I have to give full points to Postman for user experience.

What I Don’t Like About Bruno

Bruno and its community claim it has a simple and clean interface. I agree with the simplicity part, but honestly, when I opened Bruno for the first time, I hated it.

I couldn’t stop thinking about the modern and smooth UI of Postman. Bruno felt too raw at first.
Maybe it’s something you get used to over time, but first impressions matter, and Bruno didn’t win that battle.

Final Thoughts

After using Bruno for two months, I can say this:

• Bruno is fast, offline-first, and open source a perfect tool for developers like me.
• Postman is still the king when it comes to UI and industry standard practices, but its dependency on the cloud is a real headache for me.
• If you’re someone who values speed, privacy, and offline development, Bruno is a solid alternative you should try.
• If you work in a team or need advanced integrations, Postman might still be your best fit.

Bruno is the new dog in the yard, but it’s barking loud enough to make experienced developers take notice.