ShellYard vs Hoppscotch

Hoppscotch is great for a quick GET.
ShellYard is great for the rest of your day.

Hoppscotch is the fastest free API client to open and fire. It's also just an API client — running in a browser tab. ShellYard is a native desktop workspace where API testing is one tab among SSH sessions, DB queries, 40+ network tools, and an AI assistant. Same Postman v2.1 import path, same direct-to-API requests, plus the rest of the stack.

Download free for macOS, Windows, Linux

Free forever · Postman v2.1 import · Native desktop, not a browser tab

GitHub

Slack

hoppscotch.io · API

Gmail

Linear

https://hoppscotch.io/?method=GET&url=...

GET

https://api.example.com/v1/users

Fast. Free. Open source. And one of five tabs.

vs a dedicated workspace

ShellYard

$_ prod-edge · SSH

api.acme.io · HTTP

customers.psql · DB

mtr 8.8.8.8 · MTR

GET

https://api.acme.io/v1/users

Tunnel via prod-edge + DB tab, + MTR tab, + AI on response

Every tab belongs to the same workflow.

Hoppscotch lives in the browser. ShellYard lives in its own desktop.

Both are viable. Pick by workflow shape.

Quick decision.

Stay on Hoppscotch if

Browser-first is a feature for your environment (Chromebook, shared workstation, no install rights).
You only need quick HTTP, GraphQL, or MQTT requests against public endpoints.
Open source + community-governed roadmap is load-bearing.
You rely on the hopp CLI in your CI/CD pipeline.

Switch to ShellYard if

Your day is more than just API requests — SSH sessions, DB queries, network checks.
You want SSH-tunnel routing built into the request, not a separate ssh -L terminal.
You want a multi-engine database inspector and a 40+ tool network toolkit in the same app.
You want an AI assistant that can read the response and explain the 503.

Or run both — Hoppscotch for the quick browser-tab GET, ShellYard for the workspace.

Feature-by-feature

The API-client surface you're used to, plus the surrounding stack ShellYard ships — and the places Hoppscotch is the better tool.

ShellYard advantage Hoppscotch advantage Parity

Feature	Hoppscotch	ShellYard
REST (GET/POST/PUT/PATCH/DELETE/…)
GraphQL client + schema introspection
WebSocket
Server-Sent Events (SSE)
Body editor (raw / form / multipart / GraphQL)
Environments + {{variable}} substitution
OAuth2 / Bearer / Basic / API-key auth presets
Collections + folders
Postman v2.1 import
Pre-request + test scripts
Open source	✓ MIT	— paid commercial
Web-first (runs in any browser, zero install)	✓ hoppscotch.io	— desktop only
Self-hostable	✓ community + enterprise	— managed AWS backend
CLI runner for CI/CD	✓ hopp CLI
MQTT		— not yet
Native desktop window (primary surface)	Electron wrapper (secondary)	✓ macOS, Windows, Linux
SSH-tunnel routing per request		✓ Tunnel-via on the request, env, or collection
SSH / RDP / VNC / Serial / SSM in the same window
Multi-engine database inspector		✓ Postgres, MySQL, SQL Server, Redis, Mongo, SQLite
40+ network diagnostic tools		✓ MTR, packet capture, TLS, SNMP, DNS, syslog…
AI on responses (BYO key)		✓ Magellan — Anthropic / OpenAI / Gemini / Ollama
Credential vault		✓ AES-256-GCM (Free), KMS-wrapped (Pro+)
Team collaboration (RBAC + shared collections)	✓ workspaces	✓ Shared Spaces (Team+)
Pricing	Free, donation-supported	Free / $24 / $49 / $99 — annual prices, locked

Reflects publicly documented Hoppscotch capability at time of comparison.

Where Hoppscotch still wins

If these are load-bearing, keep Hoppscotch.

01

Open source under MIT

Fully inspectable, forkable, community-governed. ShellYard is a paid commercial desktop app — closed source.
02

Web-first — zero install

Runs in any browser, instant trial, no permissions needed. ShellYard is a desktop install.
03

Free, unlimited, donation-supported

No commercial pressure on the roadmap. ShellYard has a free tier but is a paid product overall.
04

Self-hostable

Community edition self-hosts on Docker; enterprise edition has an on-prem path. ShellYard's cloud-sync backend is managed-only.
05

hopp CLI for CI/CD

Run a collection in a pipeline step. ShellYard is desktop-only — no CLI runner yet.
06

MQTT support

Hoppscotch ships MQTT alongside REST / GraphQL / WebSocket / SSE. We don't ship MQTT yet.

The honest pitch is supplement, not replace. Keep Hoppscotch open for the quick browser-tab GET and the CI pipeline. Install ShellYard for everything else in your day.

Switching path

Your Hoppscotch collections, on a native desktop, in three steps.

1

In Hoppscotch, export your collections.

Settings → Import / Export → choose Hoppscotch JSON or Postman v2.1. Save the file.
2

Open ShellYard. Collections → Import → Postman v2.1.

Folders, requests, auth presets, and {{variables}} land intact. Environments come with them.
3

Open a request. Click Tunnel-via if it's internal. Fire.

Public-endpoint requests behave exactly like in Hoppscotch — direct to the API. Internal ones get a Tunnel-via pill: pick the SSH session and route through it. No ssh -L, no port-forward.

Before you install

The questions a Hoppscotch user asks.

Is ShellYard open source?

No. ShellYard is a paid commercial desktop app. Hoppscotch wins here — it's MIT-licensed, fully inspectable, forkable, and community-governed. If open source is load-bearing for your decision (procurement requirement, principled stance, security-review process that demands source access), stay on Hoppscotch. We're not going to pretend otherwise.

Hoppscotch has a CLI (hopp). Does ShellYard?

No — ShellYard is desktop-only. If your CI/CD pipeline calls hopp run against a collection, keep Hoppscotch for that. Plenty of teams will run both: Hoppscotch + hopp in CI, ShellYard on the engineer's machine for the day-to-day workspace.

What about MQTT?

Not yet. Hoppscotch ships MQTT alongside HTTP / GraphQL / WebSocket / SSE. ShellYard covers REST, GraphQL, WebSocket, and SSE — MQTT isn't on the immediate roadmap. If you're testing IoT or pub/sub workflows, Hoppscotch is the right tool today.

Can I self-host ShellYard?

No. The desktop app runs on your machine, but the optional cloud-sync backend (Pro and above) is managed by us on AWS — not self-hostable. Hoppscotch wins here: their community edition self-hosts on Docker, and their enterprise edition has a full on-prem path. If you need the backend inside your VPC, stay on Hoppscotch.

Does ShellYard see my requests?

No. Requests go from your desktop directly to the target API — there is no ShellYard server in the request path, no proxy, no inspection layer. On Pro+ with cloud sync enabled, your collection definitions (URLs, header names, env-var keys) are stored KMS-encrypted in our DynamoDB. The actual request traffic — bodies, responses, auth tokens at send-time — never transits us. Free is local-only.

Why use a desktop app over a browser tab?

Four concrete reasons: (1) Tunnel-via SSH routing — a browser tab can't open an SSH session to your bastion and route an HTTP request through it; ShellYard can. (2) Native file system + clipboard — direct access without browser sandbox prompts. (3) Persistent state — survives reloads, tab-crashes, and the eight other tabs competing for memory. (4) One window for the whole stack — SSH session, DB query, MTR run, and HTTP request live next to each other, not scattered across browser tabs.

Stop debugging in a browser tab.

Install. Import a Postman v2.1 export from Hoppscotch. Open the SSH connection you use to reach the API. Click Tunnel via. Fire the request. If it doesn't replace the five browser tabs you had open, uninstall — no account required to try it.