Bruno keeps API collections in git-diffable files, which is the entire pitch

Postman's real lock-in was never features — it's that collections live in a proprietary workspace, synced to someone else's cloud, invisible to your version control. Team knowledge about your own API sits outside the repo.

Bruno's design decision is the fix: collections are plain text files in your repo (.bru format). Which means requests get code review, API changes and their collection updates land in the same PR, history is git log, and there's no sync service to pay for or leak from — offline is the default, not a degraded mode.

The trade: you give up Postman's hosted collaboration layer (shared cloud workspaces, built-in mock servers). If your collaboration already happens through git, that's no loss at all — it's the same workflow your code uses.

Bruno vs Hoppscotch and when each fits: https://toolfreebie.com/postman-alternatives/