What are the best API dev tools?
Asked "What are the best API dev tools?", ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Google AI Mode and Perplexity named 42 distinct tools across 15 answers on September 7, 2026, and 26 of them in two or more answers, and all 5 engines agreed on Postman, the only tool every engine named.
Measured acrossChatGPTCopilotGeminiGoogle AI ModePerplexity
26 of 42 names confirmed · named in 2 or more of 15 answers · asked September 7, 2026 · 5 engines
The best API development tools include Postman, Insomnia, Swagger Editor, and MuleSoft, each excelling in different parts of the API lifecycle. Postman is a comprehensive tool covering design, testing, mocking, and documentation, while Insomnia is favored for lightweight testing and Swagger Editor dominates design workflows. MuleSoft leads enterprise API management.
- 1Postmannamed in 15 of 15 answers
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- 2Insomnianamed in 14 of 15 answers
- 3Hoppscotchnamed in 11 of 15 answers
- 4Brunonamed in 11 of 15 answers
- 5Stoplightnamed in 9 of 15 answers
- 6SwaggerHubnamed in 8 of 15 answers
- 7HTTPienamed in 6 of 15 answers
- 8Apidognamed in 5 of 15 answers
- 9Thunder Clientnamed in 5 of 15 answers
- 10SoapUInamed in 5 of 15 answers
- 11Swaggernamed in 4 of 15 answers
- 12Scalarnamed in 4 of 15 answers
- 13Kongnamed in 4 of 15 answers
- 14ngroknamed in 3 of 15 answers
- 15Kong Gatewaynamed in 3 of 15 answers
- 16Apigeenamed in 3 of 15 answers
- 17Mintlifynamed in 3 of 15 answers
- 18Redocnamed in 2 of 15 answers
- 19MuleSoftnamed in 2 of 15 answers
- 20Swagger UInamed in 2 of 15 answers
- 21Swagger Editornamed in 2 of 15 answers
- 22k6named in 2 of 15 answers
- 23ReadMenamed in 2 of 15 answers
- 24Mockoonnamed in 2 of 15 answers
- 25REST Clientnamed in 2 of 15 answers
LOCKED
The full measurement
- The position each of the 5 engines gave all 42 names.
- How many of the 15 answers named each of them.
- 127 sampled observations behind this ranking, and where the engines disagree.
- Fan-out — the query each engine actually searched.
- Every citation, and the sources nobody cited.