BenchRank
#26 in API DevelopmentUpdated 2026-08

HTTPie

by HTTPie · API testing client for the terminal, web and desktop

BenchRank score

19.6 — BenchRank score out of 100

Screenshots of HTTPie

Homepage · HTTPie

Homepage of HTTPie

Overview

HTTPie is an API testing client. HTTPie for Terminal is the original open-source command-line tool for working with HTTP servers and APIs, installed through package managers such as brew, apt, pip or snap. HTTPie for Web & Desktop, in public beta, wraps the same use in a graphical interface, with a Mac app and a browser app.

Best for
Developers testing HTTP APIs who want a command-line client or a graphical app
Pricing
The captured page shows no prices or plans; the terminal version is described as open source.
Runs on
macOSWindowsLinux

Strengths and trade-offs

Strengths

  • Terminal version is open source and free to install
  • Installable via brew, apt, pip, snap, choco, port and yum
  • Graphical web and desktop app alongside the CLI
  • Large user base: 47,961 GitHub stars, plus a Discord

Trade-offs

  • HTTPie for Web & Desktop is still labelled public beta
  • No pricing shown anywhere on the homepage
  • Homepage lists an AI section but says nothing about what it does
  • Latest changelog highlighted on the page is a year old

How HTTPie markets itself

A structured read of the promise, proof and page design on HTTPie’s captured homepage.

Homepage capture

“FLOW THROUGH APIs”

  • Angle: Simplicity / ease
  • Hero: Illustration

Pricing

Published plans and prices from HTTPie’s own pricing page.

How this score is made up

Each dimension is scored out of 100 and combined into the headline score using fixed weights.

  • MCP support

    Whether an agent can drive the product through the Model Context Protocol, and how much setup that takes.

  • Documentation

    Publicly reachable docs — coverage, freshness, code samples and machine readability.

  • Agent friendliness

    How readable the site is to an automated client: llms.txt, structured data, server-rendered content, crawler access.

  • Changelog

    A public, dated record of what shipped and when — the clearest signal that a product is still alive.

  • Marketing site structure

    Whether the site answers a buyer's questions: clear positioning, the pages that matter, and accessibility.

  • Page speed

    How fast the site loads for real visitors: Chrome UX Report 75th-percentile LCP, INP and CLS, with a Lighthouse mobile run standing in where a site has too little traffic for field data.

  • Operational trust

    Status page and incident history, security disclosure, compliance and data-processing documentation.

Measured, but not part of the score

Useful to know, but not a mark for or against the product — so these do not affect the ranking.

  • Openness

    Source availability, self-hosting, data export and open standards. Scored and shown, but not part of the composite — paid SaaS is not worse for being paid SaaS.

  • Maintenance

    Release cadence and repository activity. Scored and shown, but not part of the composite — it is only measurable for open repositories.

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Where this comes from

The HTTPie pages BenchRank reads when it scores the product — its documentation, release notes, status and security pages, and its repository where there is one.

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