Keploy vs Schemathesis
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted developer tools & git options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Keploy | Schemathesis |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 95 · Excellent | 88 · Excellent |
| Category | Developer Tools & Git | Developer Tools & Git |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Language | Go | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | docker, binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 18,479 | ★ 3,622 |
| First released | 2022 | 2019 |
| Replaces | Postman | Postman |
What are Keploy and Schemathesis?
Keploy
Keploy is an open-source testing toolkit that records API calls and database interactions to automatically generate test cases and data mocks. It is self-hosted as a CLI and server for backend testing.
- Tests from real traffic
- Auto-generated mocks
- CI integration
- No code changes needed
Schemathesis
Schemathesis automatically generates and runs test cases against web APIs based on their OpenAPI or GraphQL schema to find bugs and spec violations. It runs locally as a CLI or Python library.
- Property-based API testing
- OpenAPI and GraphQL
- Finds spec violations
- CI integration
Keploy vs Schemathesis: key differences
Keploy is written in Go, while Schemathesis is built with Python. Licensing differs — Apache-2.0 for Keploy versus MIT for Schemathesis. Schemathesis is the more established project (first released 2019), while Keploy arrived in 2022. Keploy has the considerably larger community, at 18,479 GitHub stars versus 3,622.
Why pick each one
Choose Keploy if…
- Tests from real traffic
- Automatic mock generation
- CI-friendly CLI
Watch out for
- Linux-centric capture
- Setup varies per stack
Choose Schemathesis if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (3.6k GitHub stars)
- Written in Python
Frequently asked questions
Is Keploy or Schemathesis better?
Neither is universally better. Keploy has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Keploy and Schemathesis free and open-source?
Yes. Keploy is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Schemathesis under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Keploy and Schemathesis with Docker?
Keploy: yes. Schemathesis: yes.