Self-Host ApiTab

Own Your API Tooling

A self-hosted, open-source alternative to Postman — for any team that wants full control over their own API tooling.

Free & open source Self-hosted Already built

Why This, Why Now

Cloud API tools come with a recurring cost — in money, speed, and control

Per-seat pricing that scales with headcount

Postman charges per user, every month, indefinitely — the price of standing still goes up as the team grows.

Heavy and slow to run

Postman is widely reported as slow to launch and resource-hungry, especially with larger collections. ApiTab is built lightweight from day one.

Sensitive data leaves our network

API keys, tokens, and request payloads pass through a third party's cloud by default.

We don't control the roadmap

Feature paywalls, pricing changes, and end-of-life decisions happen to us, not with us.

The Proposal

ApiTab — the same daily workflow, hosted entirely on your own infrastructure

ApiTab is a full-featured API client — a desktop app and a browser extension — backed by a small self-hosted server you run yourself. Same collections, environments, and scripting your team already knows. Existing Postman collections import in one click, so switching costs nothing but a few minutes.

100% open source · MIT licensed Free — no per-seat cost Self-hosted on your infra One-click Postman import

Why It's Worth Doing

What you get

Zero licensing cost

No per-seat fees, no annual renewal negotiation. Free, indefinitely.

Full data control

API keys, tokens, and requests never leave infrastructure you own.

No vendor lock-in

Open source (MIT) — you can audit, modify, or fork it at any time.

You own the roadmap

Uptime, retention, backups, and priorities are yours to decide.

Feature Parity Where It Counts

Everything the team already uses, day to day

Full request builder

All HTTP methods, auth, JSON/form/raw bodies

Collections & environments

{{variable}} interpolation with autocomplete

Pre/post-request scripts

Postman-script-compatible test scripting

Code generation

cURL, Fetch, Axios, PHP, Python snippets

Request history

Automatic, searchable, restorable

Team collections

Share, sync, and collaborate live

One-click import

cURL commands and Postman collections

Desktop + browser

Windows, macOS, Linux, Chrome, Firefox

Fake data generators

{{$randomEmail}}, {{$guid}} and more — same $-syntax Postman uses

How It Stacks Up

ApiTab vs. Postman

Capability	ApiTab (self-hosted)	Postman
Pricing	Free, open source	$19–$49 / user / month (Team–Enterprise, billed annually)
Where your data lives	Your own server	Postman's cloud
Source code	Fully open (MIT)	Closed source
Collections, environments, history	✓	✓
Pre/post-request test scripts	✓	✓
Team sync & sharing	✓	✓
Fake data generators	✓	✓
Mock servers & API monitors	Not yet	✓