SoapUI is a popular API testing tool with a fairly dedicated client base. Yet when testing complex and modern API applications, finding alternatives to established tools like SoapUI becomes essential. These alternatives help overcome any limitations that SoapUI may have as you scale your testing efforts.
This article explores 10 noteworthy alternatives, dissecting their features and advantages to help you make an informed choice for your testing needs.
Table Of Contents
What is SoapUI?
SoapUI is a widely used open-source tool for automating API testing and web services testing, such as REST and SOAP APIs. Its primary function is to ensure the API functions correctly by allowing users to create, execute, and automate comprehensive test cases.
Features of SoapUI
1. SoapUI comes with an easy-to-use and intuitive interface to create and execute test cases without knowing coding.
2. It excels in testing the functionality and performance of different APIs, including REST, JMS, AMF, and SOAP.
3. The tool facilitates the automation of API testing, which can also be integrated with CI/CD pipelines.
4. SOAPUI provides detailed reports and insights into test outcomes, aiding in effective analysis.
5. It facilitates data-driven testing with multiple data sets to enhance test coverage and scenarios.
Reasons to Consider an Alternative to SoapUI
SoapUI might be a fan-favorite of many companies, but it still comes with a few drawbacks. There are some valid reasons you should look at when searching for a SoapUI alternative tool:
1. Learning Curve: The use case of SoapUI, especially if it involves dealing with complex test cases might pose challenges for users unfamiliar with API testing tools.
2. Limited Collaboration: Collaboration features in SoapUI come with limited features as compared to its modern alternatives.
3. Performance Issues: SoapUI can experience performance degradation when handling large projects with many test cases or complex test scenarios.
4. Scripting Dependency: For users not comfortable with scripting, the reliance on scripting in SoapUI might be a drawback and time-consuming.
5. Steep Configuration: Configuring SoapUI for specific needs might require a steep learning curve due to the need to master the tool’s advanced features.
6. Community Support: Depending on community support alone might be limiting for certain businesses when they are trying to increase their reliance on SoapUI for API testing.
Factors to Consider When Selecting a SoapUI Alternative Tool
Landing on the right alternative to the SoapUI tool is only possible when you know what you are looking for in the test automation tool. Some factors to consider in this case would be:
1. Ease of Adoption: Evaluate how the tool will complement your current employees and their skill set. See if the testing team can easily learn the tool’s features without spending a significant amount of time.
2. Compatibility and Integration: Consider the tool’s compatibility with protocols, testing frameworks, and third-party integrations. A good API testing tool should integrate into existing development and testing ecosystems without causing disruptions.
3. Scalability and Performance: As your company grows, so should your testing practices and tools. The SoapUI alternative must also scale with your business to handle increased workloads efficiently without compromising performance.
4. Automation Capabilities: Explore the automation features provided by the alternative; if it comes with code-based scripting or codeless test creation capabilities, choose the one that matches with your project and testing needs.
5. Community and Support: SoapUI might not come with a heavy and elaborate community, so the alternative must have the strength of the user community and the support mechanisms offered by the tool’s developers.
The 10 Best SoapUI Alternatives
Let’s look at the top 10 best SoapUI alternatives of current times to elevate your API testing needs.
Testsigma
Testsigma is a cloud-based GenAI-powered test automation platform that distinguishes itself with a scriptless automation approach, AI capabilities, and self-healing mechanisms. It empowers users to automate tests without the need for extensive coding, allows them to run complex tests in simple English, and supports web, mobile, API, desktop, Salesforce, and SAP testing under one roof.
Key Features:
- No-Code Automation: Testsigma’s no-code interface allows testers to create and execute automated tests 10x faster without the need for scripting using the pre-defined NLPs.
- End-to-End Testing: The tool integrates functional UI testing and API testing and also supports integration with CI/CD tools.
- Real device testing: With cloud-based infrastructure, Testsigma enables collaborative testing from anywhere on 3000+ real devices.
- Real-Time Reporting: Testsigma offers detailed and real-time reports to improve testing and analysis time by 30%, facilitating quick decision-making.
- Integration Capabilities: It integrates smoothly with essential tools such as JIRA and Jenkins for bug and task management.
Testsigma emerges as a potent SoapUI alternative, particularly for teams seeking a modern, scriptless, and cloud-based approach to automated testing.
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TestGrid
TestGrid is a robust testing tool that harnesses the power of AI to conduct automated tests across web, mobile, API, and IoT applications. This tool offers flexibility with both on-premise and cloud-based testing options.
Key Features:
- Low-Code/No-Code Testing: TestGrid simplifies testing by enabling beginners and professionals to execute tests without coding.
- Real Device Cloud: With a comprehensive array of browsers and real devices, TestGrid supports manual and automated testing across various environments.
- Reporting: TestGrid comes with a detailed reporting capability that includes network logs and real-time visual reports.
- Auto-Healing: The tool uses AI to automatically detect changes in the code and adapts itself to minimize the need for extensive test case modifications. The feature is called intelligent auto-healing.
- Integrations: It integrates with CI/CD pipelines, bug-tracking systems, and other essential tools.
Katalon
Katalon is an all-in-one automation testing platform for web, mobile, desktop, and API applications. It is a comprehensive platform for functional and regression testing, with a no-coding feature that appeals to beginners as well as advanced users. Leveraging AI and machine learning, Katalon enables efficient testing focusing on broader testing capabilities.
Key Features:
- Diverse Testing Scope: Unlike other tools in this list, Katalon goes beyond API testing, extending its capabilities to websites, desktops, mobiles, and user interfaces.
- AI and ML Infrastructure: Katalon’s infrastructure is powered by AI and machine learning, which enhances the efficiency and adaptability of the testing process.
- Low-Code Testing: It supports low-code testing, which is the best for a team with beginner-level expertise. Alternatively, the tool has built-in API capabilities, integrated test management, and reporting features for advanced-level testing.
- Record-and-Playback: A notable feature of Katalon is its record-and-playback functionality, which captures detailed properties of web objects, offering a visual representation to users.
- Integration with CI/CD Tools: Katalon seamlessly integrates with various CI/CD tools, streamlining the marketing process for digital products. This integration ensures a smooth workflow and efficient collaboration within development pipelines.
Micro Focus UFT One
Micro Focus UFT One is a robust testing tool designed for a wide array of applications, including API testing. UFT stands for Unified Functional Testing which supports functional and regression testing across various applications, including web, mobile, desktop, and API services.
Key Features:
- Application Compatibility: Although UFT One is primarily focused on API testing, it is still compatible with a wide range of testing types, including GUI, API, and database testing.
- Unified Testing Platform: As the name suggests, UFT One is a unified platform that integrates functional and API testing to ensure a holistic approach to software testing.
- Scripting and Automation: The tool uses VBScript for test scripting, which provides advanced automation capabilities to create complex test scenarios and custom workflows. Compared to SoapUI, UFT One’s scripting environment is more integrated and supports a broader range of application types.
- Cross-Browser Testing: UFT One supports cross-browser testing to validate the performance of applications across different web browsers. This ensures a consistent user experience across diverse browser environments.
- Rich Test Reporting: The tool generates advanced reporting and analytics features, including dashboards, detailed logs, and test coverage analysis. Rich reporting capabilities empower users to make informed decisions based on detailed testing outcomes.
vREST
vREST positions itself as a modern tool specializing in automated API testing, emphasizing simplicity and effectiveness. It supports testing for RESTful APIs and provides features enabling functional and regression testing.
Key Features:
- API-Centric Testing: vREST’s design revolves around API-centric testing, particularly REST APIs. While SoapUI supports both SOAP and REST APIs, vREST is optimized for REST.
- Swagger and RAML Support: The tool supports Swagger and RAML specifications, allowing users to be compatible with compatibility for widely used API documentation formats.
- Built-in Mock Server: vREST includes a built-in mock server to simulate APIs during testing, particularly useful when system parts are not fully developed.
- Data-Driven Testing: It facilitates data-driven testing to execute tests with multiple data sets.
- Collaborative Testing: The tool supports collaboration for team members to share test cases, reports, and results. It also automatically generates API documentation from test cases.
- Easy Integration: vREST is designed for easy integration with other tools, including CI/CD pipelines, to enable automated API testing as part of the software development process.
HttpMaster
HttpMaster is a powerful yet user-friendly tool for API testing and development. Focusing on HTTP and RESTful web services, it provides a platform for crafting and executing various HTTP requests.
Key Features:
- Versatile HTTP Request Execution: HttpMaster supports executing various types of HTTP requests, which ensures comprehensive testing of HTTP and RESTful web services.
- Dynamic Parameters and Data Validation: The tool allows users to work with dynamic parameters and perform data validation during testing to improve the precision and effectiveness of API testing.
- Request and Response Customization: Users can customize both the request and response aspects of API testing to tailor testing scenarios according to specific requirements.
- Scripting and Automation: HttpMaster includes scripting and automation features for creating advanced test scenarios that contribute to the automation of complex testing tasks.
- Detailed Response Analysis: The tool provides a detailed analysis of API responses, offering insights into response data and performance.
Rest-Assured
Rest-Assured is a Java-based library for API testing specifically designed to simplify the testing of RESTful web services. With its integration with Java, Rest-Assured offers a seamless approach to testing APIs within the Java programming environment.
Key Features:
- Simplified API Testing in Java: Rest-Assured simplifies API testing within the Java programming environment, an integration that ensures a seamless experience for Java developers engaged in API testing.
- BDD Syntax Support: The library supports Behavior-Driven Development (BDD) syntax to easily author test cases in a human-readable format. The BDD syntax enhances the clarity of test scripts and encourages collaboration between developers and non-developers.
- Easy Authentication Handling: Rest-Assured facilitates easy handling of authentication mechanisms in API testing to streamline the testing of secured APIs.
- Validation of Response Data: The library allows for the validation of response data, which is crucial for verifying the correctness of API behaviors and data integrity.
- Integration with Testing Frameworks: It integrates with popular testing frameworks like JUnit and TestNG, providing flexibility and compatibility with existing testing infrastructures.
Karate DSL
Karate DSL is an open-source framework specifically designed for API testing. It combines API test automation, performance testing, and API mocking within a single framework powerful tool. Its expressive syntax stands out to create complex API tests in a simplified, readable format.
Key Features:
- BDD Syntax: While SoapUI is a good tool, it requires more technical expertise that Karate DSL that utilizes a BDD syntax and Gherkin language to create test cases in plain English.
- Expressive API Testing: The tool offers an expressive and straightforward way to perform API testing. Users can describe HTTP requests and expected responses in a natural language format.
- Data-Driven Testing: Karate DSL supports data-driven testing to run the same test scenario with multiple sets of data. Although it is similar to SoapUI data-driven capabilities, Karate’s simpler syntax and integrated approach is easier to work with.
- Integrated Test Reports: Users benefit from integrated test reports that provide detailed insights into test results to identify issues quickly and facilitate informed decision-making.
- Lightweight and Flexible: Karate DSL is lightweight and does not require extensive setup or heavy dependencies. It can be easily included in any Maven or Gradle project.
JMeter
JMeter, developed by the Apache Software Foundation, is a widely used open-source tool for performance testing, including API testing. It comes with versatile capabilities to simulate various scenarios and assess the performance of web services.
Key Features:
- Performance Testing Capabilities: JMeter specializes in performance testing to simulate multiple scenarios and analyze the performance of web services under different load conditions.
- Cross-Protocol Testing: JMeter supports a variety of protocols beyond HTTP/HTTPS, including FTP, JDBC, and LDAP.
- Data-Driven Testing: Like SoapUI, JMeter supports data-driven testing, allowing users to feed data from external sources (e.g., CSV files) into test scenarios.
- Distributed Testing: JMeter facilitates distributed testing to execute tests across multiple machines that simulates realistic scenarios and assesses the performance of APIs in a real-world.
- Comprehensive Test Reports: Users benefit from comprehensive test reports that provide detailed insights into performance metrics. These reports aid in identifying performance bottlenecks and optimizing API performance.
APIpray Inspector
APIpray Inspector is a tool designed for API testing and inspection that also places emphasis on simplicity and effectiveness with a user-friendly interface. It is a cloud-based tool that provides essential features for testing and inspecting APIs with ease.
Key Features:
- Simplified API Testing: APIpray Inspector focuses on simplifying API testing to quickly create and execute tests without unnecessary complexity. It further supports both manual and automated testing to create test cases for RESTful APIs.
- Request and Response Inspection: The tool allows users to inspect both API requests and responses, providing a detailed view of the interaction between the client and server.
- User-Friendly Interface: APIpray Inspector features a user-friendly and clean interface that enhances the overall testing experience, even for users with limited technical expertise.
- Automation Support: While offering simplicity, APIpray Inspector also supports automation to automate repetitive testing tasks along with providing monitoring capabilities.
- Real-Time Insights: Users receive real-time insights into API interactions, and receive alerts when an API fails or if its performance degrades to monitor and analyze API behavior during testing.
Comparison Chart of SoapUI Alternatives
A table highlighting the critical features of all the tools discussed here would give you a better idea of their features and capabilities.
| Tool | Primary Focus | Supported Protocols | Ease of Use | Data-Driven Testing | Scripting Language | Integration with CI/CD | Free/Paid Versions |
| SoapUI | API Testing (SOAP/REST) | SOAP, REST, JMS | Moderate (Technical) | Yes | Groovy | Yes | Free (OSS) + Paid (Pro) |
| Testsigma | Automated Testing Platform | Web, Mobile, API | High (Codeless) | Yes | Plain English using NLPs (no-code) | Yes | Paid (Trial Available) |
| TestGrid | Cross-platform Testing | Web, Mobile, API | High (Cloud-Based) | Yes | JavaScript, Python | Yes | Paid |
| Katalon | Automated Testing Platform | Web, Mobile, API | High (Codeless & Scripted) | Yes | Groovy, JavaScript | Yes | Free + Paid (Pro) |
| Micro Focus UFT One | Functional & API Testing | Web, Desktop, Mobile, API | Moderate (Scripting) | Yes | VBScript | Yes | Paid |
| vREST | REST API Testing | REST | High (Codeless) | Yes | JavaScript | Yes | Free (OSS) + Paid |
| HttpMaster | API & Web Testing | REST, SOAP | Moderate (Setup Needed) | Yes | N/A | Yes | Free (Basic) + Paid |
| Rest-Assured | REST API Testing (Java) | REST | Moderate (Code Required) | Yes | Java (JUnit) | Yes | Free (OSS) |
| Karate DSL | API Testing & Performance | REST, SOAP | High (Gherkin Syntax) | Yes | Gherkin (Cucumber) | Yes | Free (OSS) |
| JMeter | Load & Performance Testing | REST, SOAP, FTP, JDBC | Moderate (Technical) | Yes | JavaScript, Groovy, Beanshell | Yes | Free (OSS) |
| APIpray Inspector | API Inspection, Testing, Monitoring | REST, SOAP, WebSockets | High (User-Friendly Interface) | Yes | None (Codeless) | Yes | Paid (Trial Available) |
Conclusion
Key points to remember when selecting the right API testing tool is that everything depends on specific project requirements, user preferences, and the nature of testing needed.
SoapUI, with its cloud-based platform and extensive feature set, is well-suited for a variety of API testing tasks, but it lacks providing a no-code option, which many companies are looking for nowadays.
Alternatively, tools like Katalon, Karate DSL, JMeter, and APIpray Inspector come with modern features, such as BDD syntax, performance testing capabilities, low-code testing, and simplified interfaces, which make them attractive to new-age businesses.
Comparing these capabilities of varying tools and deciding on which suits your testing needs better is the right way to find an API test automation and a replacement for SoapUI.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I use Postman instead of SoapUI?
Certainly, Postman is a viable alternative to SoapUI. Both tools serve the purpose of API testing, but they differ in their approach and features.
Postman is cloud-based and emphasizes collaborative testing. Users comfortable with a cloud-centric approach and seeking a feature-rich environment may find Postman a suitable replacement for SoapUI.
Which API is best: REST or SOAP?
The choice between REST and SOAP APIs depends on specific project requirements.
REST (Representational State Transfer) is often preferred for its simplicity, scalability, and ease of use over standard protocols like HTTP.
SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol), while more rigid, offers a standardized approach with built-in security features.
The decision should be based on factors such as project needs, scalability, and the level of formality required for communication between services.
