Postman vs cURL

For developers, yes. Postman makes it easy to send requests, write tests, and validate responses without writing shell scripts. You get instant feedback, reusability, and automation that cURL does not provide. At the team level, those same features extend into design, mocking, documentation, monitoring, and governance so everyone works in one connected platform.

Developers love cURL for quick calls, but it stops there. Testing, chaining, and validation all require manual scripts that are fragile and time-consuming. Postman lets you do those same calls faster, with built-in testing and reusability. For teams, the gap widens: Postman prevents tool sprawl, provides visibility, and reduces the long-term cost of maintaining one-off scripts.

For a single developer, sharing a request from cURL means pasting a command into chat. With Postman, you can instantly share a collection with a teammate without forcing them to learn Bash. At the team level, Postman scales this up with shared workspaces, comments, permissions, and Git integration, giving everyone visibility and context that cURL cannot.

For developers, Postman protects secrets with the Postman Local Vault so you never risk exposing tokens in plain text. With cURL, tokens often end up hardcoded in scripts. At the organizational level, Postman adds enterprise-grade controls like RBAC, SSO/SAML, audit logs, BYOK encryption, SOC 2, GDPR, and HIPAA compliance through BAAs, which is why 98% of the Fortune 500 trust it.

Fact: For developers, cURL feels fast because it only does the basics. But the moment you need to test with variables, chain requests, or validate against a spec, you are writing and maintaining scripts. Postman gives you the same speed for simple calls and then removes the scripting burden as workflows grow. For teams, Postman also prevents fragmentation by standardizing how requests, tests, and results are shared.

Fact: Developers can import and export freely in Postman using open formats like OpenAPI, AsyncAPI, GraphQL, gRPC, WebSocket, MQTT, and SOAP. You are never locked in. For teams, Postman extends openness with Git integration, CI/CD support, and an open API for extensibility, so you can keep your workflow flexible while adding governance and visibility.

Fact: Developers can use Postman locally with the CLI just like cURL. You get the choice to stay local or opt into secure cloud collaboration when you need it. At the organizational level, Postman adds secret scanning, audit logs, role-based access, and compliance certifications. With cURL, secrets often sit in plaintext scripts with no visibility or control.

Fact: For developers, Postman is powerful without sacrificing usability. It handles quick requests as easily as cURL while also providing built-in testing, variables, and reporting. What looks like "extra" is what saves time and avoids brittle scripts. For teams, Postman scales without switching tools, reducing the long-term complexity of managing APIs.

Can Postman replace my cURL scripts?

For developers, yes. Everything you do with cURL can be done in Postman, often faster and without writing shell scripts. You can send requests, chain them, validate responses, and iterate with variables in a few clicks. For teams, Postman replaces hundreds of one-off scripts with a single source of truth that everyone can use and understand.

Does Postman work in the terminal?

Yes. Postman CLI gives you the same terminal workflow as cURL but with more power. You can run tests, generate reports, and plug directly into CI/CD without writing custom parsing or glue code. Teams benefit because results are consistent and repeatable instead of tied to each developer's local environment.

Is Postman slower than cURL?

For simple calls, Postman is just as fast. Developers save time because Postman removes the need to write and maintain scripts for chaining, iteration, or validation. For teams, that speed compounds into fewer bugs, faster onboarding, and quicker releases since everyone works with the same workflows. Postman also includes AI-powered tools like Agent Mode for auto-generating tests and documentation as well as API automation.

How does Postman help with secrets and tokens?

Developers can use Postman Local Vault to store secrets securely instead of hardcoding tokens in scripts. Tokens are injected automatically into requests, keeping local work simple. At the organizational level, Postman adds secret scanning, audit logs, and compliance features so sensitive data never leaks into repos, chat, or email.

Can Postman work natively with Git?

Yes. Postman offers bi-directional sync with GitHub, GitHub Actions, and GitLab, enabling teams to keep API specs and collections in version control while enabling non-Git-savvy contributors to edit visually. This gives the best of both worlds: control with flexibility.

How open and extensible is Postman's platform?

Postman supports and embraces open standards like OpenAPI, GraphQL, gRPC, WebSocket, MQTT, and SOAP. We also have our own open API endpoints available for further extensibility, allowing users to automate, customize, and integrate deeply.

Does Postman have an ecosystem?

Yes. Postman has the largest API ecosystem with 40M+ users and the Postman API Network, where teams can discover and reuse public APIs, Flows, and collections. cURL does not have a comparable ecosystem.

Can Postman integrate with our existing tools (Jira, Slack, GitHub, CI/CD, BI dashboards)?

Yes. Postman integrates with Jira, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Datadog, GitHub, GitLab, and many other workflow and monitoring tools. cURL does not provide comparable integrations.

Is Postman Free safe for enterprise use?

Absolutely. Postman's platform is built with a secure-by-design philosophy that security leaders can trust. Our mission is to empower our customers with the controls, visibility, and data ownership necessary to confidently secure their APIs. Our responsibility is to ensure enterprise-grade security is embedded at every layer of the platform.

• Cloud-first architecture: Postman has chosen a cloud-first architecture because API development is an intrinsically collaborative process across teams, between departments, with partners, and often with the public.
• Integrated throughout the entire development cycle: At Postman, security is integrated throughout the entire development lifecycle. To accomplish this, we work closely with trusted partners like Okta and AWS to enhance our posture across identity, cloud infrastructure, and data protection. Regular third-party penetration testing is conducted against both our cloud platform and endpoint agent to proactively surface vulnerabilities. And, through rigorous, ongoing compliance efforts, we align with global standards to meet the evolving needs of our users—no matter their size or industry.
• Secrets stay safe: Postman has several methods for managing secrets. It can be done locally through the Postman Local Vault, which will store credentials locally and never syncs them to the cloud, ensuring that even workspace admins and teammates can't access them. The vault clears on sign-out, preventing data from being compromised if your device or account is ever at risk.
• Proactive scanning: Postman Secret Scanner proactively scans your private and public workspaces, documentation, and GitHub/GitLab repos for exposed secrets. If something sensitive is detected, Postman alerts you immediately. Postman also supports variable masking for risks associated with screen sharing and Postman Local Vault for ensuring credentials don't leave your machine. And before any collection is published or made visible in a public workspace, the Postman Secret Scanner will detect, redact, and notify the admin of any sensitive values such as API tokens, credentials, or private keys.

Learn more about how Postman Free is safe here.

How does Postman prevent accidental secret exposure?

Postman automatically scans for secrets in shared content and removes them before exposure. With Postman Local Vault, secrets and sensitive data are stored in end-to-end encrypted local storage.

What security rules can I enforce in Postman?

Postman Enterprise supports configurable API security rules based on OWASP API Top 10 and Spectral. You can enforce them in designer workflows and even integrate them into CI/CD pipelines via the CLI.

Does Postman offer data control like BYOK?

Yes. Postman intentionally trusts users with control over their own encryption keys through the BYOK feature. This allows teams to design, govern, and build APIs within a secure, single-platform workflow.