Architectural Styles and the Design of Network-based Software Architectures

Roy Fielding's dissertation defining REST

HTTP API design guide extracted from work on the Heroku Platform API

(cc) - HTTP API design guide extracted from work on the Heroku Platform API

Best Practices for Designing a Pragmatic RESTful API

How to design a REST API?

Full guide tackling security, pagination, filtering, versioning, partial answers, CORS, etc.

Richardson Maturity Model

Explained by Martin Fowler, originally presented by Leonard Richardson at the QCon 2008.

Enterprise Integration Using REST

Discusses the constraints and flexibility that you have with nonpublic APIs, and lessons learned from doing large scale RESTful integration across multiple teams.

HATEOAS

Clear explanation on what HATEOAS is, and why you should use it.

How to GET a cup of coffee

REST API Tutorial

RestApiTutorial.com is dedicated to tracking REST API best practices and making resources available to enable quick reference and self education for the development crafts-person.

API-Security-Checklist

Best practices about REST API security

Adidas REST API Guidelines

Adidas REST API Guidelines define standards and guidelines for building REST APIs at adidas.

Atlassian REST API design guidelines version 1

This document provides guidelines to Atlassian developers who are designing REST APIs for Atlassian applications.

Cisco REST API Guide

Guidelines for designing REST APIs at Cisco.

Google Cloud API design guide

Guidelines Google follows when designing Cloud APIs and other Google APIs (REST APIs and gRPC APIs).

Haufe API Style Guide

Guidelines created by Haufe-Lexware CTO team.

Microsoft REST API Guidelines

The Microsoft REST API Guidelines, as a design principle, encourages application developers to have resources accessible to them via a RESTful HTTP interface.

Restful API Guidelines by Zalando

Developing Restful APIs: A Comprehensive Set of Guidelines.

JSON API

Standard for building APIs in JSON.

RAML

Simple and succinct way to describe RESTful API.

JSend

Simple specification that lays down some rules for how JSON responses from web servers should be formatted.

OData

Open protocol to allow the creation and consumption of queryable and interoperable RESTful APIs. Quite complex.

HAL

Simple format that gives a consistent and easy way to hyperlink between resources in your API.

JSON-LD

Standard for describing Linked Data and hypermedia relations in JSON (W3C).

Hydra

Vocabulary for Hypermedia-Driven Web APIs (W3C).

Schema.org

Collection of schemas describing common data models.

OpenAPI

Formerly known as the Swagger Specification, OpenAPI specifcation is the world’s most popular description format for defining Restful APIs.

Guzzle

HTTP client and framework for consuming RESTful web services.

Buzz

Another lightweight HTTP client.

unirest for PHP

Simplified, lightweight HTTP client library.

restangular

AngularJS service to handle REST API properly and easily.

restful.js

JS client for interacting with server-side RESTful resources.

traverson

A Hypermedia API/HATEOAS Client for Node.js and the Browser

raml-client-generator

Generates static client libs for js.

restler

REST client library for node.js.

unirest for Node.js

Simplified, lightweight HTTP client library.

RESTClient

Simple HTTP and REST client for Ruby, inspired by microframework syntax for specifying actions.

Spyke

Interact with REST services in an ActiveRecord-like manner.

excon

Usable, fast, simple Ruby HTTP 1.1. It works great as a general HTTP(s) client and is particularly well suited to usage in API clients.

httparty

Makes HTTP fun again!

Net::HTTP

Net::HTTP provides a rich library which can be used to build HTTP user-agents.

raml-ruby-client-generator

Auto generate API client from a RAML file.

gopencils

Small and simple package to easily consume REST APIs.

resty

Simple HTTP and REST client for Go inspired by Ruby rest-client.

RestSharp

Simple REST and HTTP API client for .NET

Refit

The automatic type-safe REST library for Xamarin and .NET

Flurl

Fluent, portable, testable REST/HTTP client library

RestEase

Easy-to-use typesafe REST API client library, which is simple and customisable. Heavily inspired by Refit

Tiny.RestClient

Simpliest Fluent REST client for .NET.

RestLess

The automatic type-safe-reflectionless REST API client library for .Net Standard.

Apizr

Refit-based web api client, but resilient (retry, connectivity, cache, auth, log, priority, etc...).

openapi-generator

OpenAPI Generator allows generation of API client libraries (SDK generation), server stubs, documentation and configuration automatically given an OpenAPI Spec (v2, v3).

postgrest

Serve a fully RESTful API directly from an existing PostgreSQL database.

MySQL HTTP plugin

Simple REST-like / CRUD server for any MySQL database.

pREST

A fully RESTful API from any existing PostgreSQL database written in Go.

node-restify

Framework specifically meant for REST API.

Sails.js

Node.js Web framework embedding a command to generate automatically a REST API.

mers

Express service exposing Mongoose finders as RESTful API.

flatiron/resourceful

Isomorphic Resource engine for JavaScript.

loopback

Powerful Node.js framework for creating APIs and easily connecting to backend data sources.

Feathers

is a real-time, micro-service web framework that gives you control over your data via RESTful resources, sockets and flexible plug-ins.

Expressa

Express middleware for creating APIs from JSON schemas with a simple admin editor and permissions model.

rest-hapi

Generate RESTful API based on mongoose models that supports relational data.

Nestjsx/crud

Generate CRUD controllers and services for RESTful API with NestJS and TypeORM.

Microrest

Micro-web application providing a REST API on top of any relational database.

Negotiation

Content negotiation library.

Drest

Library for exposing Doctrine entities as REST resource endpoints.

Restler

Lightweight framework to expose PHP methods as RESTful web API.

HAL

Hypertext Application Language (HAL) builder library.

Apigility

API builder built with Zend Framework 2.

phprest

Specialized REST microframework for PHP.

Hateoas

PHP library to support implementing representations for HATEOAS REST web services.

Fusio

Open source API management platform.

REST APIs with Symfony2: the Right Way

Complete guide to build a state-of-the-art REST API with Symfony2 framework.

FOSRestBundle

Bundle handling view, routing, error handling, etc. for your REST API.

stanlemon/rest-bundle

Build a REST API based on Doctrine entities using conventions over configuration.

BazingaHateoasBundle

Integrate the Hateoas library into a Symfony2 application.

Symfony REST Edition

Start with a Symfony2 application with all REST-friendly bundles pre-configured.

NgAdminGeneratorBundle

Boostrap ng-admin configuration based on stanlemon/rest-bundle.

DunglasApiBundle

Build a REST API which follow Hydra/JSON-LD specification.

API Platform

Specialize Symfony edition for the creation of hypermedia REST APIs.

NelmioApiDocBundle

Generate documentation for your REST API from annotations.

Pode

Pode is an cross-platform, open-source, community-supported web server and REST API framework for PowerShell developers

Django REST framework

Powerful and flexible toolkit that makes it easy to build Web APIs.

django-tastypie

Creating delicious APIs for Django apps.

flask-restful

Extension for Flask that adds support for quickly building REST APIs.

flask-restless

Flask extension for generating ReSTful APIs for database models defined with SQLAlchemy (or Flask-SQLAlchemy).

sandman

Automated REST APIs for existing database-driven systems.

restless

Framework agnostic REST framework based on lessons learned from TastyPie.

Python Eve

Eve is an open source Python REST API framework designed for human beings. It allows to effortlessly build and deploy highly customizable, fully featured RESTful Web Services.

Ramses

Makes RAML files executable by generating production-ready APIs from them at runtime.

Flask-Potion

Flask-Potion is a powerful Flask extension for building RESTful JSON APIs. It also provides several Clients for easier access to the API.

apistar

A smart Web API framework, designed for Python 3.

Falcon

Falcon is a bare-metal Python web API framework for building high-performance microservices, app backends, and higher-level frameworks.

FastAPI

FastAPI is a modern, fast (high-performance), web framework for building APIs with Python 3.6+ based on standard Python type hints. With automatic API documentation using Swagger UI and ReDoc, based on OpenAPI and JSON Schema.

Zato

Platform for building server-side integrations, automations and API backends in Python.

Grape

Opinionated micro-framework for creating REST-like APIs in Ruby.

Rails

RailsGuides: Using Rails for API-only applications.

gocrud

Go library to simplify creating, updating and deleting arbitrary depth structured data — to make building REST services fast and easy.

go-json-rest

Thin layer on top of net/http that helps building RESTful APIs easily.

sleepy

RESTful micro-framework written in Go.

restit

Go micro framework to help writing RESTful API integration test.

go-relax

Framework of pluggable components to build RESTful API's.

go-rest

Small and evil REST framework for Go.

go-restful

A declarative highly readable framework for building restful API's.

Resoursea

REST framework for quickly writing resource based services.

RestExpress

Netty-based, highly performant, lightweight, container-less, plugin-extensible, framework that is ideal for microservice architectures.

Vertx-Web

Vert.x-Web is a set of building blocks for building web applications with Vert.x, a toolkit for building reactive applications on the JVM.

Dropwizard

A framework for developing ops-friendly, high-performance, RESTful web services.

Chaos

A lightweight framework for writing REST services in Scala.

Rest for Haskell

This package allows you to create REST APIs in Haskell. These APIs can be run in different web frameworks. They can also be used to automatically generate documentation as well as client libraries.

httpie

Command line HTTP client, far more dev-friendly than curl.

resty

Little command line REST client that you can use in pipelines (bash or zsh).

jq

Command line JSON processor, to use in combination with a command-line HTTP client like cURL.

HttpMaster

GUI tool for testing REST APIs and services. Windows OS only.

Http-console

Command line interface for HTTP that let you speak HTTP like a local

HTTP Prompt

HTTP Prompt is an interactive command-line HTTP client featuring autocomplete and syntax highlighting, built on HTTPie and prompt_toolkit.

rest-assured

Java DSL for easy testing of REST services.

Insomnia

Cross-platform HTTP and GraphQL Client

ExtendsClass

Make HTTP requests with a simple web-based HTTP client.

TestMace

Cross-platform simple but powerful IDE for API automation testing.

Milkman

Extensible cross-platform request/response workbench, not only for http calls.

Schemathesis

Property-based testing tool for web applications built with Open API and GraphQL specifications.

Step CI

Open-source framework for API Quality Assurance, which tests REST, GraphQL and gRPC automated and from Open API spec.

RestQA

A REST API testing Framework based on BDD / Gherkin to manage microservice local testing.

Postman

Cross-platform API development and testing platform.

SoapUI

Cross-platform API testing tool for REST and SOAP APIs.

RapidAPI

Full-featured HTTP client for macOS.

FakeRest

Redirect fetch() calls to a client-side fake REST API.

json-server

Serve a REST API from fixture files using quick prototyping.

RequestBin

Inspect and debug webhook requests sent by your clients or third-party APIs.

httpbin

HTTP request and response service - a/k/a Swiss Army Knife for HTTP.

MockServer

Easy mocking of any system you integrate with via HTTP or HTTPS.

Request Baskets

Service to collect HTTP requests and inspect them via RESTful API or web UI.

DuckRails

Mock quickly & dynamically API endpoints.

Mockoon

Easily create mock APIs locally. No remote deployment, no account required, open source.

Mockintosh

A mock server generator that's capable to generate RESTful APIs and communicate with the message queues to mimick asynchronous tasks.

Mockae

Fake REST API powered by Lua.

mitmproxy

Free, open-source interactive HTTPS proxy for debugging API traffic.

Charles

HTTP proxy/monitor for inspecting API traffic on Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Fiddler

Web debugging proxy tool by Telerik/Progress.

JSON Schema

Declarative language that allows you to annotate and validate JSON documents

Public APIs

The world's largest directory of public APIs.

APIs.guru

Wikipedia for Web APIs, each API has OpenAPI/Swagger description.

JSON Placeholder

Fake REST API abput posts, users and comments

Swagger

Documentation/querying web interface for REST APIs.

API doc

Inline Documentation for RESTful web APIs.

raml2html

Generates HTML documentation from a RAML file.

ReDoc

OpenAPI/Swagger-powered three-panel documentation.

Slate

Beautiful and responsive three-panel API documentation using Middleman.

Optic

Maintain an accurate API specification without writing OpenAPI/Swagger. Works with any Stack

Zudoku

Create clean, consistent API docs with Zudoku — open source, extensible, and developer-first

Sourcey

Open source documentation platform for OpenAPI specs and markdown. Static HTML output.

Stoplight

Design-first API platform with visual OpenAPI editor, documentation, and mocking.

Cortex

Generate interactive API documentation, typed SDKs, and MCP servers from OpenAPI and other API specification formats.

Kong

Scalable, distributed, and plugin oriented API gateway backed by Nginx.

Tyk API Gateway

Lightweight API gateway with analytics logging, written in Go.

API Umbrella

API management platform for exposing web services, with web interface and analytics, written in Lua.

WSO2 API Management

API management tool with lightweight gateway and API lifecycle management, written in Java.

Express Gateway

Microservices API Gateway built on top of ExpressJS (Node.js).

Lura

Ultra performant API Gateway with middleware. Written in Go.

AWS API Gateway

Fully managed service that helps developers to create, publish, maintain, monitor, and secure APIs at any scale.

Zuplo

OpenAPI-Powered API & MCP Management platform for Security, Deployment, and Documentation. Add auth, rate-limiting, and monetization to your API or MCP Server in minutes, written in TypeScript & Go.

Nango

Native integrations framework to consume REST APIs (open-source).

Runscope

Automated API Monitoring & Testing.

Keploy

Open-source API testing and data mocking tool that generates test cases and stubs automatically from real traffic, enabling end-to-end API testing and monitoring.

Apiary

Collaborative design, instant API mock, generated documentation, integrated code samples, debugging and automated testing.

AWS API Gateway

Fully managed service that helps developers to create, publish, maintain, monitor, and secure APIs at any scale.

Apigee

Apigee is the leading provider of API technology and services for enterprises and developers.

3scale

Nginx based API gateway to integrate internal and external API services with 3scale's API Management Platform.

Assertible

Continuously test and monitor your APIs after deployments and across environments.

Moesif

API Analytics for Debugging, Monitoring, and Usage Tracking for RESTful and GraphQL.

Beeceptor

An HTTP inspecting, mocking and proxing service. Gives named endpoints for creating mock API endpoints and simulate responses.

Apitally

Analytics, request logging and monitoring for REST APIs with a focus on simplicity and data privacy.

BlazeMeter

Continuous testing platform for API performance and load testing at scale.

Loader.io

Free cloud-based load testing service for APIs.

shadcn-admin-kit

Build internal tools, admin panels, B2B apps, and dashboards on top of any REST API

react-admin

Add a ReactJS admin GUI to any RESTful API.

ng-admin

Add an AngularJS admin GUI to any RESTful API.

swagger-codegen

Auto generation of client libraries or server stubs given an OpenAPI specification (formerly known as the Swagger Specification).

Linx

Low-code API platform. Build, debug and host REST APIs