A Postman alternative for gRPC

Postman is a full API platform that also speaks gRPC. If gRPC on a Mac is all you need, istek is a native app built only for that: 5.4 MB to download, no workspace or telemetry, and $29 once.

Updated

When Postman is the better choice

  • Your team shares collections and workspaces in Postman.
  • You also test REST, GraphQL or WebSocket APIs in the same tool.
  • You need scripted tests, mocks or monitors.
  • Anyone on the team uses Windows or Linux.

When istek is

  • You work on gRPC services you own, on a Mac, and want the tool to open instantly.
  • You want nothing to leave your machine: istek has no account and no telemetry, and contacts only the servers you call.
  • You want tokens in the macOS Keychain rather than in synced workspace data.
  • You would rather pay once than subscribe.

Moving a request over

  1. Connect istek to the same address. With reflection on, the services appear on their own; otherwise drag in the .proto files you gave Postman.
  2. Pick the method and paste the JSON body from Postman into the request editor.
  3. Add the same metadata under Metadata Headers, marking tokens as secret.
  4. Press ⌘↩.

What istek does not do yet

  • It does not show response headers or trailers; you see the body, the status and the latency.
  • It does not negotiate compression.
  • It does not speak gRPC-Web or Connect; it is a native gRPC (HTTP/2) client.
  • Environments save connection settings, not variables, so there is no {{placeholder}} substitution in request bodies.
  • It runs only on macOS 14 or later on Apple Silicon. There is no Windows, Linux or Intel build.

istek, $29 once

macOS 14.0+ · Apple Silicon · no account, no telemetry

Buy istek · $29