Karve — a native Windows alternative to Postman
Karve is a fast, native Windows workspace for your .http requests: gather them from across your repos, organize them into folders, and run any of them — from files that live on your disk, with no account and no subscription. Postman is a full cloud API platform; if your day is really just "write a request, send it, read the response," Karve gives you that without the platform wrapped around it, for a one-time $39.99.
Why Karve
What you get
A native Windows app that opens fast, signs you into nothing, and keeps every request as a plain .http file in your repo — organized into folders, diffed in Git, paid for once. No Electron, no seats, no cloud plan to manage.
What it leaves out — on purpose
Karve is single-user and local by design: no cloud workspaces, mock servers, GraphQL/gRPC, or CLI. That focus is the point — a smaller, faster tool you actually own, instead of a platform you log into.
Side by side
| Dimension | Karve | Postman |
|---|---|---|
| Platform & engine | Native WinUI 3, no Electron | Electron desktop + web; can feel heavy on large collections |
| Price | $39.99 one-time, all v1.x updates | Free tier; Solo ~$9/mo billed annually (~$108/year, every year); Team & Enterprise cost more |
| Files & Git | .http files on disk, diff in Git | Proprietary JSON collections; Git via export/integration |
| Organize requests | Virtual folders over files from any repo; files never move | Cloud-synced collections inside workspaces |
| Account & cloud | None — fully local, no sign-in | Account-centric; much functionality is cloud-tied |
| Protocols | REST / HTTP | HTTP, GraphQL, gRPC |
| Team & automation | None — single-user tool | Workspaces, CLI, mocks, monitors, governance |
Postman details reflect its public product and pricing pages; Karve's reflect the shipping v1.0 scope. "On the roadmap" means planned, not yet available.
Where Karve fits
If your daily loop is "open a request, send it, read what came back," a full platform is a lot of surface area to carry. Karve trims it down to a native Windows app that opens fast, signs you into nothing, and keeps every request as plain text next to your code. Change a base URL in one place and every request in the file follows.
It also sidesteps two recurring Postman frustrations for solo and small-team users: the weight of an Electron app under large collections, and the steady pull toward accounts, cloud sync, and per-seat plans. The math is plain — Karve is $39.99 once, while a Solo plan is roughly $108 every year, every year. Karve is one purchase, one machine, your files.
What Postman does that Karve doesn't
- Team collaboration: shared workspaces, comments, and the API Network.
- GraphQL and gRPC alongside HTTP.
- Automation: the Postman CLI, collection runs, mocks, and monitors for CI/CD.
- Enterprise governance, SSO, and reach across macOS, Linux, and the web.
Karve doesn't try to cover this ground — it stays a fast, local Windows workspace for the requests you run every day.
FAQ
Is Karve a Postman replacement?
For everyday REST work on Windows, yes — a native app with no account. It doesn't aim to replace Postman's team workspaces, governance, mock servers, or API Network; those sit outside Karve's single-user, local scope.
Can I import my Postman collections?
Not yet — collection import is on the v1.1 roadmap. Today you bring requests over as .http files, which are plain text and live in your repo.
Does Karve need an account or subscription?
No. It's a one-time $39.99 Microsoft Store purchase with no account and no subscription.
Does Karve support GraphQL or gRPC?
Not in v1 — Karve focuses on REST and the .http format. Postman covers HTTP, GraphQL, and gRPC.
On Karve's roadmap
Everything above is Karve's shipping v1.0 — what's in the app today. A few things are planned for upcoming v1.x updates, included in the one-time price and not yet available:
See the full roadmap for what's coming and what's deliberately out of scope.
More comparisons
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