# 6 Postman alternatives with local storage (2026)

> 6 Postman alternatives that keep collections on your computer: Porticol, Insomnia, Bruno, Yaak, Hoppscotch and Thunder Client. Who each suits, what it costs, and a source for every fact, checked 20 Oct 2026.

Canonical: https://porticol.app/alternatives/local
Last updated: 2026-10-20

An API client holds your tokens, internal hostnames and test data. One that keeps them on your computer works on a plane, keeps working through the vendor's outage, and never puts customer data in someone else's cloud.

## What to look for

- Collections, environments and history stored on your computer, not only in the vendor's cloud.
- Requests that go straight from your machine to your APIs.
- Sync that you turn on, rather than sync you can't turn off.

## The 6 best Postman alternatives with local storage

### Porticol

**Best for:** People leaving Postman who want the same scripts, local storage and an MCP server.

Yes, in one SQLite file on your computer [1]

Free for one seat; Pro $9, Enterprise $19 a seat a month.

Porticol keeps every collection, environment and history entry in one SQLite file on your computer. Sign in once with a free account and the app works offline, checking the account at least every 30 days; nothing is uploaded until you turn on sync or share a collection.

A collection on this computer: a POST Create order beside its 201 Created response.

[Download Porticol](https://porticol.app/download)

### Insomnia

**Best for:** Teams who want a local vault with optional cloud sync.

Yes, in a Local Vault [2]

Essentials is free; Git Sync for up to three users; Pro $12, Enterprise $45 a user a month.

[Porticol vs Insomnia](https://porticol.app/compare/insomnia)

### Bruno

**Best for:** People who never want to sign in.

Yes, in a folder on your filesystem [3]

The open source edition is free, with two workspaces and public Git providers; Pro $6, Ultimate $11 a user a month, billed annually.

[Porticol vs Bruno](https://porticol.app/compare/bruno)

### Yaak

**Best for:** Personal projects on a fast, offline-first app.

Yes, offline-first [4]

Free for personal use; a licence is needed at work; Individual $79 a year or $399 once; Business $149 a user a year.

[Porticol vs Yaak](https://porticol.app/compare/yaak)

### Hoppscotch

**Best for:** People who want a free client in a browser.

Yes, in local session storage or the desktop app [5]

Free, with a personal workspace and the collection runner; Business $6, Enterprise $11 a user a month, billed annually.

[Porticol vs Hoppscotch](https://porticol.app/compare/hoppscotch)

### Thunder Client

**Best for:** People who test APIs inside their editor.

Yes, on your device [6]

Free for three collections of up to 30 requests; Starter $3, Business $7, Enterprise $16 a user a month, billed annually.

[Porticol vs Thunder Client](https://porticol.app/compare/thunder-client)

## Only partly, or not at all

- **Apidog:** In an Offline Space in the desktop app [7]

## Where Postman stands

Workspaces live in Postman Cloud; the lightweight client keeps its own work locally. [8] Checked against Postman's own pages on 20 Oct 2026; see [Porticol vs Postman](https://porticol.app/compare/postman).

## Questions

**Which Postman alternatives keep collections on your computer?**

Porticol, Insomnia, Bruno, Yaak, Hoppscotch and Thunder Client. Porticol: Yes, in one SQLite file on your computer. Insomnia: Yes, in a Local Vault. Bruno: Yes, in a folder on your filesystem. Yaak: Yes, offline-first. Hoppscotch: Yes, in local session storage or the desktop app. Thunder Client: Yes, on your device.

**Does Postman keep collections on your computer?**

Workspaces live in Postman Cloud; the lightweight client keeps its own work locally, as Postman's own pages said on 20 Oct 2026.

**Is a local-first API client safe for company data?**

Safer than a cloud workspace for most teams: tokens and responses never leave the computer unless you sync or share them. In Porticol, secret values are kept in the system keychain and masked in history.

## Try Porticol free

Free for one seat on macOS, Windows and Linux. Import your Postman collections in one step.

## Sources

1. [porticol.app/docs/faq](https://porticol.app/docs/faq)
2. [github.com/Kong/insomnia](https://github.com/Kong/insomnia)
3. [github.com/usebruno/bruno](https://github.com/usebruno/bruno)
4. [github.com/mountain-loop/yaak](https://github.com/mountain-loop/yaak)
5. [github.com/hoppscotch/hoppscotch](https://github.com/hoppscotch/hoppscotch)
6. [docs.thunderclient.com/get-started](https://docs.thunderclient.com/get-started)
7. [apidog.com/blog/best-offline-api-client/](https://apidog.com/blog/best-offline-api-client/)
8. [learning.postman.com/docs/getting-started/basics/using-api-client/](https://learning.postman.com/docs/getting-started/basics/using-api-client/)

## Related

- [Postman alternatives with Git sync](https://porticol.app/alternatives/git)
- [Postman alternatives with an MCP server](https://porticol.app/alternatives/mcp)
- [Postman alternatives with a CLI for CI](https://porticol.app/alternatives/cli)
- [The best Postman alternative](https://porticol.app/postman-alternative)
- [All comparisons](https://porticol.app/compare/)