Developer Tools

What are developer tools?

Developer tools support the daily work on software without becoming part of the shipped product: API tools for testing endpoints, database tools for queries and migrations, plus testing frameworks and complete backend building blocks. The category is cut broadly; the common denominator is the high share of open source. Most tools here run locally or on your own infrastructure.

Typical use cases

Building and testing APIs: Hoppscotch is an open source API client that runs in the browser and can be self-hosted. Collections and environment variables work the way you know from Postman, just without a forced cloud account.

Automating browser tests: Playwright drives all three major browser engines through one API and has established itself as a standard for end-to-end testing. Its built-in auto-waiting reduces the flaky tests that plagued older frameworks.

Backend without boilerplate: PocketBase packs a database, authentication and a REST API into a single executable file and carries prototypes as well as smaller production projects. If you work with your own database, Prisma offers a type-safe ORM for TypeScript.

What matters when choosing

Local vs. cloud: Many commercial developer tools move core features into the cloud, complete with mandatory accounts for the whole team. Local or self-hosted tools avoid that. With API collections full of credentials, this is also a security question.

Project health: A tool that moves deep into your workflow should be actively maintained. Release frequency, and whether a company or a single person stands behind it, tells you more than the star count on GitHub.

Lock-in: Prefer tools that build on open standards, such as OpenAPI import and export in an API client. A later switch then stays a chore instead of becoming a fresh purchase.

Frequently asked questions

Which open source alternative to Postman is there?

Hoppscotch is the best-known browser-based alternative and can be operated entirely on your own infrastructure. Alongside it, Bruno has established itself as a local API client that stores collections as files in your Git repository.

What is the difference between Playwright and Selenium?

Both automate browsers. Selenium is the older standard with broad language support and a huge ecosystem. Playwright ships with auto-waiting and network mocking out of the box and produces more stable tests in practice; for new projects it is usually the more direct choice.

With 75 entries, the best way in is through your concrete problem, such as testing an endpoint or setting up a backend. Each detail page shows a tool's strengths, weaknesses and matching alternatives.