What is Karate used for?

Karate is an open-source framework for test automation that brings API checks, mocks, performance tests and UI automation together under one readable syntax. It is a good fit for REST API regression testing, contract testing between microservices and mocking dependencies during development.

Is Karate open source?

Yes. Karate is open source under the MIT licence. Its source code is on GitHub at karatelabs/karate and is written mainly in Java.

Yes. Karate is open source, so the software itself is free to use. Paid plans are also available, starting at $64 per seat per month.

What is Karate an alternative to?

Karate is an open-source alternative to Postman, ReadyAPI, Katalon and Testfully. Other open-source alternatives to Postman include Step CI and Mockoon.

Is Karate actively maintained?

Yes. The most recent commit to Karate was on 2 October 2026, and the latest release is v2.1.3, published on 27 September 2026. The project has 9k stars on GitHub.

Karate: open-source alternative to Postman, ReadyAPI

About Karate

Karate is an open-source tool that unifies API testing, mocks, performance testing and UI automation in one framework with a single readable syntax. Tests are written as feature files, so people who are not Java developers can read and write them, and the project is written in Java.

Its documentation highlights the match keyword for validating complete responses, headers and arrays, parallel execution of features, scenarios and example rows, reusable flows by calling one feature from another, and test doubles that stand up HTTP, gRPC and message-queue mocks from a feature file. Karate v2 adds virtual threads, a single-binary CLI, JavaScript debugging and soft assertions. There are extensions for VS Code and IntelliJ, plus Karate Agent and Karate Xplorer products.

Tests can be run through JUnit, the command line or CI/CD pipelines. Karate is licensed under MIT, and topics mention BDD, Cucumber, contract testing, load testing and WebDriver. It suits QA engineers and developers who want one tool for API-level and UI-level checks.

Key features

API testing in readable feature files
Built-in HTTP, gRPC and queue mocks
Performance testing from the same tests
UI automation with a browser driver
Parallel test execution
JUnit, CLI and CI/CD runners
VS Code and IntelliJ extensions

Good fit for

→REST API regression testing
→Contract testing between microservices
→Mocking dependencies during development

Built with: Java
Tags: test-automation; api-testing; mocks; performance-testing; ui-testing; bdd; java; contract-testing

Karate: questions and answers

What is Karate used for?: Karate is an open-source framework for test automation that brings API checks, mocks, performance tests and UI automation together under one readable syntax. It is a good fit for REST API regression testing, contract testing between microservices and mocking dependencies during development.
Is Karate open source?: Yes. Karate is open source under the MIT licence. Its source code is on GitHub at karatelabs/karate and is written mainly in Java.
Is Karate free?: Yes. Karate is open source, so the software itself is free to use. Paid plans are also available, starting at $64 per seat per month.
What is Karate an alternative to?: Karate is an open-source alternative to Postman, ReadyAPI, Katalon and Testfully. Other open-source alternatives to Postman include Step CI and Mockoon.
Is Karate actively maintained?: Yes. The most recent commit to Karate was on 2 October 2026, and the latest release is v2.1.3, published on 27 September 2026. The project has 9k stars on GitHub.