Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

API Blueprint VS JSON Server

Compare API Blueprint VS JSON Server and see what are their differences

API Blueprint logo API Blueprint

A powerful high-level API description language for web APIs.

JSON Server logo JSON Server

Get a full fake REST API with zero coding in less than 30 seconds. For front-end developers who need a quick back-end for prototyping and mocking
  • API Blueprint Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-02-01
  • JSON Server Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-08-01

API Blueprint features and specs

  • Human Readability
    API Blueprint uses a Markdown syntax, making it easy to read and write for humans. This enhances collaboration among teams as non-developers can understand the API documentation.
  • Tooling and Automation
    There are various tools available that support API Blueprint, such as Apiary, that aid in the creation, testing, and management of APIs. This can accelerate the development process.
  • Community and Support
    API Blueprint has an active community, providing a wealth of resources, forums, and documentation that can help new users get up to speed quickly.
  • Version Control Compatibility
    Being text-based, API Blueprints can be easily versioned using standard version control systems like Git, supporting collaborative development workflows.
  • Integrated Mock Servers
    Tools like Apiary provide automatic mock server generation for API Blueprints, allowing for immediate testing of API contracts without writing any code.

Possible disadvantages of API Blueprint

  • Limited Adoption
    Compared to other API specification languages like OpenAPI/Swagger, API Blueprint is not as widely adopted, which may lead to fewer resources and community support over time.
  • Tooling Limitations
    While there are tools available for API Blueprint, they may not be as comprehensive or feature-rich as those available for more popular specifications such as OpenAPI.
  • Complexity Handling
    API Blueprint might struggle with modeling complex APIs, which can be better accomplished with more detailed specification formats like OpenAPI.
  • Learning Curve
    Although it is human-readable, new users may find the syntax somewhat challenging initially, particularly if they are more accustomed to JSON or YAML used by other specifications.
  • Limited Language Support
    Some programming languages or frameworks may have limited or no support for API Blueprint, which can restrict its use in certain tech stacks.

JSON Server features and specs

  • Ease of Setup
    JSON Server can be set up quickly with minimal configuration, making it ideal for prototyping and rapid development. It allows developers to have a fully functioning REST API within minutes.
  • RESTful API
    It provides a standard RESTful API out of the box, allowing developers to perform all CRUD operations. This is helpful for simulating a real-world server while testing client-side applications.
  • Customization
    JSON Server supports middlewares, routes, and custom rules, allowing developers to customize the behavior and structure of the API to better suit their needs.
  • Fakes Backend Data
    It's great for simulating backend responses without needing a real backend setup, useful in front-end development to test components and interactions.
  • Lightweight
    As a lightweight server, it requires fewer resources and is quite simple compared to setting up a full-fledged backend server.

Possible disadvantages of JSON Server

  • Not for Production
    JSON Server is designed for development and testing. It is not suitable for production use due to performance limits and lack of robust security features.
  • Limited Functionality
    While JSON Server is great for basic CRUD operations, it lacks advanced features like authentication, authorization, and complex querying.
  • Data Persistence
    Data is stored in a JSON file, and while this is convenient for testing, it is not suitable for applications that require persistent and scalable data storage.
  • In-memory Limitations
    Being an in-memory server, it may have issues with handling large datasets or complex data structures efficiently.
  • Manual Data Reset
    Any changes made to the JSON file while the server is running require manual resets or reloads to reflect in the API, which can be cumbersome during continuous development cycles.

API Blueprint videos

API Blueprint - Design API Specs & Create API Docs in Seconds

JSON Server videos

Angular CRUD with Web API Tutorial Part #3 - Setup Local JSON Server and Mock API Endpoints

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to API Blueprint and JSON Server)
API Tools
44 44%
56% 56
Development
0 0%
100% 100
API Design
100 100%
0% 0
APIs
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, JSON Server should be more popular than API Blueprint. It has been mentiond 45 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

API Blueprint mentions (12)

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JSON Server mentions (45)

  • Building a CRUD app with React Query, TypeScript, and Axios
    We'll be using json-server to create the REST API that we'll fetch data from. In the root of the project, create a db.json file with the contents. - Source: dev.to / 11 months ago
  • Full Stack To Do list, a step-by-step tutorial
    Our backend will be little more than a two-way translation layer between the database and the user interface (UI). Later in this post we will identify other responsibilities of a backend but our implementation will be kept simple to demonstrate the fundamental machinery and concepts. It is worth noting the backend comes in two parts, web server and application server. Both json-server and Express are able to... - Source: dev.to / almost 2 years ago
  • Improve Frontend-Backend development harmony with JSON-Server
    JSON-Server creates fake REST API with a minimum amount of configuration, it provides a simple way to create mock RESTful APIs and easily define the required endpoints, allows easy definition of the data schema in a JSON file and can serve as a reference for each figure in the project. - Source: dev.to / almost 2 years ago
  • Dictionary app
    I thought about usingJson Server (hosting the repo with the words on Github to begin with), Googlesheets, or maybe Firestore (i would prefer not to use it ,to avoid extra costs just in case it gets a reasonable amount of users). It isnt a big app so I just want a simple solution for storing the words and fetching them. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Playwright - Not just for Frontend
    First, I didn't create a backend API for this example, but I used a fake API to test. I created it with json-server and json-server-auth. They are two npm packages that use a JSON file as a database and expose the database in an API. You can find more about json-server in its documentation and about json-server-auth here. - Source: dev.to / about 2 years ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing API Blueprint and JSON Server, you can also consider the following products

Postman - The Collaboration Platform for API Development

JSON Placeholder - JSON Placeholder is a modern platform that provides you online REST API, which you can instantly use whenever you need any fake data.

Apiary - Collaborative design, instant API mock, generated documentation, integrated code samples, debugging and automated testing

ReqRes - A hosted REST-API ready to respond to your AJAX requests.

Django REST framework - Django REST framework is a toolkit for building web APIs.

Mockae - The most flexible way to mock REST APIs with Lua code execution