Milkman – The Better Alternative to Postman

(milkman.dev)

52 points | by jplunien 3 hours ago

23 comments

  • urig 2 hours ago
    For a Postman-like experience, I prefer Bruno: https://github.com/usebruno/bruno (not affiliated)
    • CatMustard 2 hours ago
      Never used milkman so can't say if it's better, but +1 for Bruno.

      1. Very similar UX to postman (just minus the bullshit), so a very easy transition.

      2. It's FOSS*

      3. Most importantly of all, it has a cute dog logo.

      * oof, just saw this on another comment: https://royathan.com/blog/the-api-client-hunt/

      • Kinrany 2 hours ago
        The Hurl file format seems good, any new FOSS replacements should probably build on top
      • satvikpendem 14 minutes ago
        Bruno is VC funded.
    • uncletoxa 16 minutes ago
    • satvikpendem 15 minutes ago
      Bruno is also VC funded so it'll go the same way.
  • zabij 2 hours ago
    - I got sick of all those electron-based applications - I created a JavaFx-based workbench

    Oh boi

    • asdfsa32 2 hours ago
      Modern JavaFX isn't your grandparents JavaFX, in fact, modern Java isn't your grandpa's Java.
      • thunfischtoast 2 hours ago
        So I'm my own grandpa? Whats sorcery is this?
        • asdfsa32 41 minutes ago
          Yes, you're a dinosaur now, I am afraid. Kids born in 2000 are 26 year old.
  • hn_submit 8 minutes ago
    How about writing it in C++ or Rust and doing away completely with huge memory footprint and long startup times. Java also needs a runtime, which is bothersome.

    I suggest using wxWidgets or Qt so you get multi-platform support for free.

  • mrdootdoot 7 minutes ago
    Isn’t testing an API just more test cases that Claude toils through? Why do I care about milkman Bruno or postman.
  • biinjo 1 hour ago
    We are in an age where it’s easier to vibe code your own alternative than to do a quick internet search to check if an alternative already exists.
    • nilamo 52 minutes ago
      Magnificent. One step closer to self sufficient community ships drifting through the system, meeting up with other ships once a month or less.
    • bleuarff 1 hour ago
      What a wonderful usage of resources.
      • mrdootdoot 2 minutes ago
        Maybe this is what and how it always should have been. My life is better now that an LLM proxies my human sound waves and finger clacks to bits that do what I say - and precisely what I say nothing else
      • mexicocitinluez 19 minutes ago
        It's wild that building bespoke software that fits your needs instead of relying on a one-size-fits-all approach that you're constantly battling against is frowned upon.

        I have to ask myself what business you could possibly be in where you look at the software landscape and think "Yea, this aligns perfectly with my needs".

  • gosen 2 hours ago
    The UI looks a bit outdated, it gives me vibes of some old software from 2000s somehow (probably because of the Java). And it would be really helpful to clearly state benefits of using Milkman instead of Postman right on the home page (e.g. performance benchmarks, UX, extendability, etc.). I see that it has some users and 1.3k stars so there're definitely some cool things in Milkman, probably you could just present them better
    • dkdbejwi383 1 hour ago
      Both the application UI and website are giving open source option from 2008
    • kjmr 2 hours ago
      It looks like a windows app running on macOS.
  • upmostly 2 hours ago
    Are API testing UIs really relevant anymore? I haven't manually tested an API for almost two years, and my APIs are SO much better. This kind of GUI is going to die over the next 5 years.

    Postman should be seriously worried.

    • Mashimo 1 hour ago
      > Are API testing UIs really relevant anymore?

      We have a postman collection mainly for testers to manually verify certain aspect of a otherwise fairly unit and end-to-end test covered API.

      • mrdootdoot 6 minutes ago
        Have you considered converting this to an actual test suite in $language with AI doing the majority of the work?
      • mkesper 1 hour ago
        Export to curl?
        • Mashimo 1 hour ago
          They are testers, not devs. They don't know how to use command line, or edit environment variables.
    • rs_rs_rs_rs_rs 2 hours ago
      I'm thinking the same thing, I haven't have a need for a tool like Postman in a long time, prompting is enough at this point. I wonder what features others use from Postman that an agent can't do quickly.
      • ihavesomeexampl 1 hour ago
        Quickly eye-balling onprem responses, skipping over UIs and just eyeballing data in general is really useful. Curl can do it but with a couple headers it becomes messy, also RPCs, websockets, etc. It’s just convenient to have a single place where you can eyeball all comms.
    • vr46 2 hours ago
      You're not wrong - I bought a Bruno "Golden Edition" for $9 two years ago pre-release... and... I just don't use it. I'm not even sure why I keep it around, at 524.5 MB

      ...and... it's gone

      • upmostly 1 hour ago
        That's an interesting point. I wonder if over the next X years consumers will free up ALOT of disk space by just using agents and not needing to download and install desktop software.

        Full disclosure, I'm building a desktop app called DB Pro [1] which is a modern desktop database client.

        We're still doing well, and selling a lot, but we're having to think about what the next 2/3/4/5 years look like...

        [1] https://dbpro.app

        • ethbr1 1 hour ago
          > if over the next X years consumers will free up ALOT of disk space by just using agents and not needing to download and install desktop software

          Trading bits you own for rented redundant compute to recreate same seems... suboptimal?

          How much power should we burn on everyone's agent recreating curl?*

          * yes, agents have tools, but what is and isn't an agent tool is a gray area. "Desktop software" could be an agent tool with a human UI.

        • Muromec 1 hour ago
          You will own nothing and be happy they said
  • sumedh 2 hours ago
    Looking at such ugly UI breaks my heart :(
  • splittydev 39 minutes ago
    When I saw the UI, my first thought was "is that written in Java"? And indeed, it is. Kinda funny that it's so easy to spot that language based on its horrible default UI skins alone.
  • jplunien 3 hours ago
  • Jackson98Tom 2 hours ago
    Have you ever heard about Bruno?
    • x3ro 2 hours ago
      Came here to say this. While not perfect, Bruno is certainly the best tool in this category that I have used :)
  • ivanjermakov 59 minutes ago
    > New features regularly. There are more and more plugins/features coming.

    Why all software needs to constantly evolve and grow with features? This is how you end up with what Postman has become.

  • hobo123 1 hour ago
    By the time I decided I should maybe try postman, I was absolutely turned off that it wants you to setup an account (for what?).

    Went with Insomnia instead (which IIRC also wants an account now?) and now just some text-mode VSCode http client.

  • Offirmo 3 hours ago
    What is better than the existing, established alternatives https://www.usebruno.com/ and https://insomnia.rest/ ?
  • herpderperator 2 hours ago
    The author appears to be suggesting that a key difference between Bruno and Insomnia is that Milkman not written in JavaScript/Electron, but rather JavaFx (i.e., Java) and thus is faster.
  • ehosca 25 minutes ago
    when will it run on AmigaOS?
  • shaaaade 1 hour ago
    I wish the milkman would deliver my milk... In the morning...
    • fbnlsr 1 hour ago
      You have so many machines Richard
  • manveerc 2 hours ago
    What’s next garbageman?

    Jokes aside, why is it better?

  • 7734128 2 hours ago
    Your GUI screenshots are squished on mobile. Stretched vertically.
  • dankobgd 1 hour ago
    i hate this more than electron
  • elAhmo 1 hour ago
    Yet another Postman alternative...
  • akshit-bansal11 2 hours ago
    [dead]
  • OhNoNotAgain_99 2 hours ago
    [dead]