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Hurl vs REST Assured: open-source API testing tools compared

Metrics as of , from the GitHub or GitLab API of each repository. Refreshed monthly.

Summary

Hurl: Command line tool that runs and tests HTTP requests written in a plain text format.

REST Assured: Java library for testing REST services with given-when-then request chains and JSON or XML response validation.

Both are listed under API testing. The table gives repository metrics from the GitHub API with their fetch date, then the documented facts used for every comparison in this category, each linked to the README or docs page it comes from. A cell reads "not documented" when the fact was not found in the project's documentation (3 of 14 fact cells here); that does not mean the feature is absent.

Side by side

Hurl and REST Assured: metrics and documented facts, in the fixed row order used for API testing comparisons.
FactHurlREST Assured
Stars19,21017,1411
Forks74511,9421
Contributors9711811
Last release2026-04-2912026-07-101
Last commit2026-09-2112026-07-221
Commits in 90 days1631191
LicenseApache-2.01Apache-2.01
Primary languageRust1Java1
Statusactive1active1
ProtocolsHTTP: REST, SOAP and GraphQL APIs, HTML content, XML and JSON based APIs source: READMEHTTP: any method, with explicit support for POST, GET, PUT, DELETE, OPTIONS, PATCH, HEAD source: README
Test authoring formatPlain text Hurl files that define HTTP requests and asserts source: READMECode (Java DSL in given / when / then form) source: Docs: Usage
Languages for writing testsHurl plain text file format source: READMEJava; Scala support module; Kotlin extension module source: Docs: Getting Started
Parallel or distributed execution--parallel runs each file in its own worker thread; --jobs sets the number of parallel jobs source: READMEnot documentednot found in the project's documentation as of
CI integrationCI/CD tutorial with GitHub Actions and GitLab CI/CD examples source: Docs: CI/CD Integrationnot documentednot found in the project's documentation as of
Report formatsHTML, JSON, JUnit, TAP source: READMEnot documentednot found in the project's documentation as of
Install methodBinaries; Homebrew, Chocolatey, Scoop, winget, cargo, conda-forge, npm, Docker image ghcr.io/orange-opensource/hurl source: READMEMaven or Gradle dependency io.rest-assured:rest-assured source: Docs: Getting Started

1 Fetched from the GitHub or GitLab API on . Hover a value for its own date.

When each fits

Written from each project's documented scope, not from preference. Neither tool is ranked.

Hurl

Fits projects that run and test HTTP requests defined in plain text files from the command line; its README describes chaining requests, capturing values and evaluating queries on response headers and body. source: README

REST Assured

Fits projects that test and validate REST services from Java; its README describes making GET requests and validating the JSON or XML response. source: README

More on these tools

Sources

  1. GitHub REST API: repository, read
  2. GitHub REST API: repository, read
  3. GitHub REST API: contributors, read
  4. GitHub REST API: contributors, read
  5. GitHub REST API: latest release, read
  6. GitHub REST API: tags, read
  7. GitHub REST API: commits, read
  8. GitHub REST API: commits, read
  9. README, read
  10. README, read
  11. Docs: Usage, read
  12. Docs: Getting Started, read
  13. Docs: CI/CD Integration, read

Documented facts collected 2026-09-22. See the methodology for how metrics and facts are gathered.