Happy Valley

Apidog vs Backenly

Apidog and Backenly are both developer tools tools aimed at developers and small businesses. Apidog costs less, from $12/mo versus $25/mo for Backenly. Both have a free plan.

Apidog

All-in-one API design, testing, mocking and docs; a Postman rival

Backenly

Open-source Postgres backend that coding agents build and maintain

PricingFreemium · $12Open source · $25
Starting price$12/mo$25/mo
Free planYesYes
Free trial14 days—
Built forDevelopers, Small businesses, EnterpriseDevelopers, Small businesses, Freelancers
Platformsweb, macos, windows, linuxweb
Country——
Rating——

Choose Apidog if

Small and mid-size engineering teams that want one spec-first tool for API design, debugging, testing, mocking and docs at a lower per-seat cost than Postman.

  • Replaces several tools with one spec-first workspace
  • Free for up to four users; paid seats cost less than Postman
  • Imports Postman, Insomnia, OpenAPI, HAR, cURL and WSDL

Look elsewhere if: Companies whose main need is a polished public developer portal or strict design governance (ReadMe, Mintlify, Stoplight).

Choose Backenly if

Developers building apps with AI coding agents who want a Postgres backend the agent can create and the platform can maintain safely.

  • Open source and self-hostable, including the autonomy engine
  • Standard Postgres with pg_dump exports on every plan
  • Self-healing and API requests are not billed on any plan

Look elsewhere if: Teams that need a mature ecosystem, long track record or a NoSQL model (Supabase, Firebase).

Apidog vs Backenly pricing

Apidog

  • Free$0Up to 4 users; design, debug, test, mock and docs
  • Basic$12/user/mo$9/user/mo billed annually; 3 custom domains
  • Professional$24/user/mo$18/user/mo billed annually; unlimited change history
  • Enterprise$27/user/moBilled annually; SSO, organizations; on-prem separately

Backenly

  • Self-hosted$0Apache-2.0; your servers and Postgres
  • Free$0/mo1 project, 512 MB Postgres, 1 GB storage, 2 seats
  • Pro$25/moUnlimited projects, 8 GB Postgres; $240/yr billed annually
  • EnterpriseCustomSSO (OIDC), custom limits, 12-hour support SLA

Apidog · Key features

  • Visual OpenAPI and JSON Schema designer with change history
  • Request client for HTTP, GraphQL, gRPC, WebSocket, SOAP and SSE
  • Postman-compatible pre and post scripts and database connections
  • Visual test scenarios, scheduled runs and performance testing
  • Schema-driven smart mocks, cloud mock and self-hosted runner mock
  • Interactive API docs with custom domains and free readers

Cons

  • Interface is dense and takes time for non-technical users
  • Public docs portals are less polished than ReadMe or Mintlify
  • Smaller community and plugin ecosystem than Postman

Backenly · Key features

  • MCP tools that let coding agents build Postgres, auth, storage and functions
  • Self-healing loop that checks the backend every minute, with snapshots and undo
  • Human approval for destructive or auth-related changes
  • PostgREST REST APIs with OpenAPI docs for every table
  • Realtime inserts, updates, presence and broadcast over SSE
  • Row-level security policies written from plain descriptions

Cons

  • Very new platform with a small community
  • Free cloud tier lacks triggers, webhooks and custom domains
  • Pro caps (100,000 MAU, 8 GB Postgres) are hard unless you buy overages

Apidog vs Backenly: FAQ

Which is cheaper, Apidog or Backenly?

Apidog starts at $12/mo and Backenly at $25/mo. Both prices are checked on the vendors' own pricing pages.

Do Apidog and Backenly have a free plan?

Yes, both Apidog and Backenly have a free plan; paid plans add more usage and features.

Not sure yet?