Top API Testing Tools for Software Development in 2022

Every application has three layers: a data layer, a user interface (UI) layer, and of course the Application Programming Interface or API layer.

The entire business logic of the application, ranging from how users can interact with the services, to functions and data is held within the app in the API layer. Therefore, API testing focuses on analyzing the business logic as well as the security of the application and data responses. 

These are the core functionality in every application and if one of these modules does not perform as expected then it can affect the entire application. Hence, an API test is imperative before deploying an application and testers must ensure that requests are made to one or more API endpoints and that the generated response is efficiently compared with expected results.

What is API Testing?

In a software application, the Application Programming Interface is considered to be a middle layer between the user interface (UI) layer and the database layer. As the name indicates, the API acts as an interface that enables communication and data exchange from one software system to another.

API testing is one of the most commonly adopted software testing practices that test the APIs effectively both manually and by leveraging automated technologies. By utilizing these tests, enterprises can seamlessly test the application functionality, reliability, performance, and security as well. 

API testing effectively verifies the business logic of the comprehensive software architecture within a very short amount of time. Without the proper API testing strategy, there could be significant failures in the application that could lead to compromised data security, poor performance, continuous application failure, and much more.

Once the application is delivered, these issues could not only be expensive to correct but could also significantly affect the business’s reputation and customer expectations.

Therefore, as always prevention is better than cure and with API testing businesses can prevent several flaws and protect the application from poor user interface and user experience.

The Top Benefits of API testing In Software Development

Language-independent

During API testing, the resulting data is exchanged via extensible markup language(XML) and JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) formats, so any language can be leveraged by testers for the upcoming test automation. XML and JSON are particularly structured data, therefore, it makes the verification quick and stable. 

GUI-independent

Application Programming Interface testing can be performed in the application before the Graphical User Interface (GUI) testing. This access to early testing provides early test feedback and better team productivity among QA testers. 

Improved test coverage

Several API or web services have certain advanced features that allow QA teams to create automated tests with high coverage. This allows more modules in the application to be tested simultaneously in a shorter amount of time. Also, testers will be able to perform both functional testing as well as non-functional testing.

Faster releases

API testing can be done much faster when compared to UI testing. Especially if enterprises leverage test automation services and not manual testing for API tests. This provides faster results and allows the developers to reduce the software development life cycle. 

Top API Testing Tools in Software Development

When conducting an API test, QA teams and developers can either create their own test framework or choose from a variety of efficient ready-to-use API testing tools. If the testers do not possess sophisticated coding skills then testing tools are the best choice. 

Here are some of the top API testing tools in 2022.

Postman

Postman is one of the most commonly leveraged top API development collaboration platforms. The reason why this platform is there in this list is that it also offers an API testing tool that efficiently simplifies the setting up of automated tests.

Developers and testers with less coding knowledge can seamlessly create tests and requests and then combine them into one test sequence. The Postman platform offers flexibility in managing test workflows through the utilization of Postman monitoring, the Postman application, or Postman’s command-line tool known as the Newman.

SoapUI

SoapUI is one of the most popular API testing tools in 2022. It is a free java-based open-source API tool that is widely used for testing web services such as SOAP, RESTful, or HTTP-based services. Sometimes, enterprises also leverage the premium companion of SoapUI, called ReadyAPI.

This premium tool comes with much more advanced features and added API testing functionality that can help in seamless collaboration between testers and developers.

Katalon Studio

There are some tools that are meant for amateur testers who do not have much coding knowledge and there are yet other advanced API testing tools meant for experts with sophisticated technical knowledge.

But Katalon Studio is a multifaceted API testing tool that can be seamlessly leveraged by both advanced testers and novice testers as well. This API testing tool is capable of combining user interface and API services for operating systems such as Windows, Linux, and Mac. 

Apigee

Similar to Postman, Apigee is also a cross-cloud full-lifecycle API management platform that is powered by JavaScript. It also consists of different options for testers to test the  Application Programming Interface and also measure the API performance through API traffic, error rates, and response time.

It is particularly leveraged by complex digital enterprises because it can easily handle APIs with tremendous amounts of data.

ACCELQ

ACCELQ is an artificial intelligence-powered API test automation platform that leverages natural language programming (NLP) to facilitate the creation of test logic in easily understandable languages such as English rather than as complicated lines of code.

It provides QA teams and developers with application abstraction that enables them to undertake comprehensive testing requirements including test planning, design, creation, and execution. 

Conclusion

Before choosing the perfect API testing tool for your business, it is imperative that you must determine which test features you require and which you don’t.

Some test automation platforms also enable testers to combine the benefits of multiple API testing tools so that different features from multiple tools can be incorporated to make the testing process more effective. There are also several test automation services companies that offer comprehensive packages for application testing.

Such services cover all the API testing requirements from the initial software design to the final deployment. Remember, your application efficiency depends on how well it is tested and verified, so make the right choice before deploying your apps.