Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Swagger UI VS httpbin(1)

Compare Swagger UI VS httpbin(1) and see what are their differences

Swagger UI logo Swagger UI

Swagger UI is a dependency-free collection of HTML, Javascript, and CSS assets that dynamically generate beautiful documentation from a Swag

httpbin(1) logo httpbin(1)

HTTP request and response service
  • Swagger UI Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-17
  • httpbin(1) Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-05

Swagger UI features and specs

  • Interactive API Documentation
    Swagger UI provides a user-friendly interface where developers can interact with an API directly from the documentation, making it easier to understand and use.
  • Automated Documentation Generation
    Swagger UI can automatically generate API documentation from an OpenAPI Specification, reducing the time and effort required to write and maintain documentation manually.
  • Standardization
    It adheres to the OpenAPI Specification, a widely-accepted standard for defining APIs, which promotes consistency and interoperability across different tools and platforms.
  • Comprehensive Testing
    Developers can use the Swagger UI to test endpoints directly, allowing for quicker identification and resolution of issues during development.
  • Customization
    The UI can be customized to fit the specific needs and branding of a project, offering flexibility in how the API documentation is presented.
  • Community and Ecosystem
    Swagger UI is part of a larger Swagger suite of tools, supported by a large community and numerous plugins, enhancing its capabilities and integration options.

Possible disadvantages of Swagger UI

  • Learning Curve
    New users may find Swagger UI complex and might require some time to get familiar with the OpenAPI Specification and the tool’s features.
  • Performance
    For very large APIs with numerous endpoints and complex schemas, Swagger UI can experience performance slowdowns, affecting usability.
  • Initial Setup
    Setting up Swagger UI and configuring the OpenAPI Specification can be time-consuming and requires accuracy to ensure the documentation is correctly generated.
  • Dependency on OpenAPI Specification
    The effectiveness of Swagger UI is highly dependent on the accuracy and completeness of the OpenAPI Specification. Poorly defined specifications can lead to incomplete or incorrect documentation.
  • Security Concerns
    Exposing APIs in an interactive documentation tool can raise security concerns, particularly if sensitive functions are publicly accessible without proper authentication and authorization controls.

httpbin(1) features and specs

  • Simple Testing
    httpbin provides a straightforward way to test HTTP requests, allowing developers to send requests and see responses without setting up a server.
  • Variety of Endpoints
    It offers a variety of endpoints like /get, /post, /put, /delete, and more, which are useful for testing different types of HTTP methods.
  • Request Inspection
    The service allows users to inspect various parts of the HTTP request, including headers, data, and status codes, which is invaluable for debugging.
  • Free and Open Source
    httpbin is free to use and is open-source, which makes it accessible for all developers and allows for community contributions.
  • Ease of Use
    With a clean, minimalistic interface, it is easy for developers to understand and start utilizing immediately without a steep learning curve.

Possible disadvantages of httpbin(1)

  • Not for Production Use
    httpbin is designed for testing and demonstration purposes only and is not suitable for live production environments as it lacks security features.
  • Limited to HTTP
    The service is limited to HTTP protocol testing and does not support more advanced use cases or protocols beyond simple HTTP methods.
  • Public Environment
    Since httpbin is publicly accessible, it’s not suitable for testing private or sensitive data, as requests might be logged or visible to others.
  • Potential Rate Limiting
    As a public service, there may be rate limiting or performance bottlenecks during peak usage times, which could affect testing workflows.
  • Lack of Customization
    Users cannot customize the httpbin endpoints to fit specialized use cases or requirements due to its general-purpose design.

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Swagger UI and httpbin(1))
API Tools
82 82%
18% 18
Developer Tools
53 53%
47% 47
Documentation
100 100%
0% 0
Proxy
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Swagger UI and httpbin(1)

Swagger UI Reviews

Top 20 Open Source & Cloud Free Postman Alternatives (2024 Updated)
Swagger UI is part of the Swagger ecosystem, providing tools for API design and documentation. It allows developers to visualize and interact with APIs effortlessly.
Source: medium.com
Postman Alternatives for API Testing and Monitoring
Swagger UI is a commonly used interactive visualization tool for RESTful web services, used for documenting, designing, and testing APIs. Swagger UI reads the OpenAPI specification document and generates an interactive documentation website. This web-based UI allows users to visualize and interact with the API’s resources without having any of the implementation logic in...
15 Best Postman Alternatives for Automated API Testing [2022 Updated]
One of the most appealing features is that Swagger UI is entirely customizable. You can freely modify your tool to meet your needs with complete access to the source code. Swagger UI makes an existing JSON or YAML document interactive. It creates a platform that organizes and categorizes our methods (get, put, post, delete).
Source: testsigma.com

httpbin(1) Reviews

We have no reviews of httpbin(1) yet.
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Social recommendations and mentions

httpbin(1) might be a bit more popular than Swagger UI. We know about 59 links to it since March 2021 and only 49 links to Swagger UI. 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.

Swagger UI mentions (49)

  • Common Mistakes in RESTful API Design
    The OpenAPI Specification (formerly Swagger) has become the industry standard for documenting RESTful APIs. Tools like Swagger UI and ReDoc can generate interactive documentation from OpenAPI definitions, reducing the effort to maintain quality documentation. - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
  • Leveraging API Documentation for Faster Developer Onboarding
    Reference generators like Swagger UI Automatically create API references from OpenAPI specifications, keeping documentation in sync with the actual API. - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
  • How to Build a Task Manager API with Django REST Framework: Part 7 - API Documentation with OpenAPI and Swagger
    We’ll use OpenAPI (a standard for API specifications) and Swagger UI (a tool to visualize and interact with the API) to generate our documentation. The drf-spectacular library will help us create an OpenAPI schema for our DRF API and integrate Swagger UI seamlessly. - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
  • How to get RCE with LaTeX via file upload
    Who has never analyzed a website and ended up causing an error and discovered that the server was in debug mode and therefore revealing environment variables (like other URLs, database connection strings and even credentials) and routes to API endpoints and their respective Swagger UI documentation? Cool, and who has ever come across something called "LaTeX Compiler API 1.0" among those endpoints? - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • The Good, the Bad, and the OpenAPI: Why Developers Love and Hate It
    Poor UI/UX – OpenAPI-generated documentation tools like Swagger UI are functional but often lack an intuitive experience. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
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httpbin(1) mentions (59)

  • WebAssembly on Kubernetes
    The use case should be more advanced than Hello World to highlight the capabilities of WebAssembly. I've implemented an HTTP server mimicking a single endpoint of the excellent httpbin API testing utility. The code itself is not essential as the post is not about Rust, but in case you're interested, you can find it on GitHub. I add a field to the response to explicitly return the underlying approach, respectively... - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • Using cURL Inside a Docker Container
    For example, If we want to test sending HTTP requests, we can use the service httpbin. - Source: dev.to / 4 months ago
  • Create your K3S lab on Google Cloud
    Create a Dockerfile for your app, we will use the HttpBin API which allows to test all the request we can make to a Rest API :. - Source: dev.to / 7 months ago
  • Host a Reverse Proxy in Seconds
    Curl --request POST -d '{"message":"hello"}' \ Https://matts-org-a0696.blackbird-relay.a8r.io/proxy/post { "args": {}, "data": "{\"message\":\"hello\"}", "files": {}, "form": {}, "headers": { "Accept": "*/*", "Content-Length": "19", "Content-Type": "application/json", "Host": "httpbin.org", "User-Agent": "curl/8.6.0" }, "json": { "message": "hello" }, "url":... - Source: dev.to / 8 months ago
  • Metrics Can Fool You: Measuring Execution Time in Connection-Pooled Environments
    To simulate delays in the external service, we will use the httpbin Docker image. Httpbin provides an easy-to-use HTTP request and response service, which we can use to create artificial delays in our requests. - Source: dev.to / 9 months ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Swagger UI and httpbin(1), you can also consider the following products

Postman - The Collaboration Platform for API Development

HTTPDump - A simple, beautiful Webhook debugging tool.

swagger.io - Swagger is an open source RESTapi Documentation Tool.

Requestly - A Powerful API Mocking and Testing Tool

Insomnia REST - Design, debug, test, and mock APIs locally, on Git, or cloud. Build better APIs collaboratively for the most popular protocols with a dev‑friendly UI, built-in automation, and an extensible plugin ecosystem.

Endpoints - View and respond to requests on an HTTP endpoint