The latest articles on DEV Community by HALXDOCS (@halxdocs). https://dev.to/halxdocs https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=90,height=90,fit=cover,gravity=auto,format=auto/https:%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fuser%2Fprofile_image%2F3931021%2F4f67f096-5614-421c-985e-579b0b49911e.png https://dev.to/halxdocs en HALXDOCS Thu, 14 May 2026 10:55:28 +0000 https://dev.to/halxdocs/postman-used-to-be-free-reqit-still-is-24mc https://dev.to/halxdocs/postman-used-to-be-free-reqit-still-is-24mc <p>Postman started as a Chrome extension.</p> <p>One developer, scratching his own itch. No accounts. No pricing tiers. No "upgrade to unlock collections." Just a clean tool that let you hit endpoints and see what came back.</p> <p>That was 2012.</p> <p>Fast forward to now — you open Postman and the first thing it asks for is an account. Then it wants you to sync to the cloud. Then it nudges you toward a team plan. The tool that used to just work now needs to know who you are before it lets you do anything.</p> <p>I get it. Companies need to make money. But somewhere between the Chrome extension and the enterprise sales deck, Postman stopped being for developers and started being for procurement teams.</p> <p>So I built Reqit.<br> What Reqit is:</p> <p>A desktop API client. Local-first. Offline-first. No account required. Zero telemetry. Your collections are plain JSON files sitting on your machine — you can read them, version them, move them, delete them. No vendor lock-in.</p> <p>Built with Go, Wails v2, React, and TypeScript. Works on Windows, macOS, and Linux.</p> <p>Why open source?</p> <p>Because that's the only way to actually prove the promise.</p> <p>"We don't collect your data" means nothing coming from a closed binary. With open source, you can read the code. You can verify that there's no phone-home logic, no hidden analytics, no silent cloud sync. The code is the contract.</p> <p>Also honestly because Postman itself started as an open project. The irony of building a closed replacement for it wasn't lost on me.</p> <p>Who it's for:</p> <p>Developers who want a tool that respects their workflow. If you're working offline, behind a VPN, on a local environment, or just tired of logging into your API client — Reqit is for you.</p> <p>I'm Kamsy, aka halxdocs. I build developer tooling in Go and TypeScript.</p> <p>Reqit is free, open source, and available now. Drop a star if it's useful — and if you have feedback, open an issue. That's the point.</p> <p>→ github.com/halxdocs/reqit</p> <p>reqit.vercel.app </p> programming opensource career startup