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SmartBear API Hub vs SoapUI comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 3, 2026

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

SmartBear API Hub
Ranking in API Testing Tools
9th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
5.2
Number of Reviews
8
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
SoapUI
Ranking in API Testing Tools
13th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
5.5
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the API Testing Tools category, the mindshare of SmartBear API Hub is 1.5%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SoapUI is 1.8%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
API Testing Tools Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
SmartBear API Hub1.5%
SoapUI1.8%
Other96.7%
API Testing Tools
 

Featured Reviews

AKSHAYRATHI - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior engineer at Nagarro
Automated API and database regression testing has reduced resources and improved insurance validation
I have noticed some errors regarding the connection with Bitbucket or Git. It generally takes some time in SmartBear and ReadyAPI. From the testing perspective, it saves a lot of time because it covered a whole regression suite with database and data-driven testing. It generally saves us time from fetching the values manually from UI. Instead, you can run your regression suite on a daily or weekly basis. This helps us to identify some errors as well as saves us time. There is a delay in connection with SmartBear API Hub; sometimes the connection is lost between the Bitbucket and ReadyAPI. When we try to reconnect those from the properties level, from the setting level, it generally takes a lot of time. This perspective can be improved with the Bitbucket and Git connection. We can also integrate a particular framework in ReadyAPI itself so that we can also run our Selenium code from the UI automation perspective. Right now, we are currently using that feature, but it requires framework-level changes. We can provide it to every user so that users can easily run their Selenium scripts, fetch the APIs, and validate the database. This helps us to create one-to-one end-to-end flow for the purpose of testing. We can enhance that feature and we can also enhance the Git functionality because we are using Sourcetree as well for connecting Bitbucket and ReadyAPI in order to push and pull our changes. That particular functionality takes a lot of time. Sometimes the changes that we have made in our regression suite are not reflecting on the recent changes in ReadyAPI. This is sometimes difficult to track and takes a lot of time to refresh that. I would say we should enhance the UI automation feature and we can also enhance the Git connection feature as well.
PramodChaudharyDarwha - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager at TCS
Organizing and sharing reusable API test suites has improved our team’s regression testing
SoapUI is really great for my team because when we are trying to create test cases and the requests that we are going to send to an API, we can create one SoapUI folder which will be XML and this XML is used by SoapUI itself. If we want to share whatever request we are running on my system with another person, we can export the test suite that we are working on and give it to another person. It is shareable through file upload and download. However, we cannot share it through a link or something implemented on the cloud. The best feature of SoapUI is that we can build a suite in SoapUI. When we build a suite, it creates a kind of directory where we can organize our tests in one place, and then we can share it. Another best feature is that we can execute the tests that we want to do on API level in a sequential fashion or in parallel, through synchronous or asynchronous calls. For the feature where we can organize and share test suites, because we have the test suite now, there are many things that we want to check manually. This suite can be shared with a team, and then the suite can be divided into parts or we can divide the work by sharing the suite. We can update the suite and then we can make a final suite that will be useful for next iterations. This has helped us in creating a very efficient test suite and a way to organize our test cases and regression suite.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The free version provided a significant return on investment, especially compared to the cost of other tools, and I would say the user-friendly interface contributed to faster delivery."
"Again, as I have mentioned multiple times, it has made API design, documentation, and collaboration much easier and much more organized, and it also saves a lot of time for the developers, for architects, for testers, for everybody who is using that."
"Since adopting SmartBear API Hub, the efficiency in collaboration across the development, QA, and product teams has really improved because everyone works from the same API specification."
"SmartBear API Hub has positively impacted my organization by improving API quality, reducing manual testing efforts, and enabling faster feedback through test automation."
"SmartBear API Hub has positively impacted my organization by significantly improving productivity."
"I want to add that the best part was we got one single platform where we can do everything from governance to contract validation to development to testing in a single tool rather than hopping from one tool to another, and I guess that's the best feature anybody can think of."
"SmartBear API Hub has positively impacted my organization as it helps to create our regression suite as well as connection with Jenkins to run smoke testing and regression settings, it saves a lot of time and it is one tool for every testing."
"Having a single source of truth for API contracts makes it easier to understand the request and response schemas, keeps automation test cases aligned with the API changes, and reduces misunderstandings during the development and testing cycle."
"SoapUI is a pretty simple tool."
"The solution's most valuable features are the designing of API, Property Transfer feature, and Groovy plugin."
"SoapUI has really made that possible for us."
"We need to test the APIs as we build them. I use the product for API testing. You can do AWS security in SoapUI. With SoapUI, we can even perform mutual SSL authentication by incorporating certificates into the SoapUI browser. This allows us to send transactions to the backend downstream."
"SoapUI is really great for my team because when we are trying to create test cases and the requests that we are going to send to an API, we can create one SoapUI folder which will be XML and this XML is used by SoapUI itself."
 

Cons

"Sometimes the connection is lost between the Bitbucket and ReadyAPI and when we try to reconnect those from the properties level, from the setting level, it generally takes a lot of time."
"SmartBear API Hub could be improved, particularly in terms of features or usability aspects."
"SmartBear API Hub can be improved, as every product has challenges."
"One area for improvement in SmartBear API Hub could be the overall user experience and navigation, especially in larger organizations with many endpoints and projects."
"I would want to see user experience enhanced, as navigating a large collection of APIs can sometimes be challenging."
"The main challenge we faced was that the native data transformation tools felt a bit limited for heavy work."
"The product needs to be available as an extension for the Chrome browser."
"The solution should include some plug-ins to share the generated reports over email."
"There are more advanced API testing tools than SoapUI, and SoapUI could be made better."
"If we could have more sharing capability within teams or its own structure, that would help."
"SoapUI is not that scalable."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"SoapUI is an open-source solution."
"SoapUI is a cheap tool that does not have an expensive license."
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Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business1
Large Enterprise8
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business2
Large Enterprise6
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SmartBear API Hub?
The free version of the product was very useful, and we did not need to get a license due to project limitations, making it very effective for completing our tasks.
What needs improvement with SmartBear API Hub?
I cannot provide feedback on areas for improvement since my last use was back in 2015 or 2016. However, I believe dropdown features in some tools should be in place, even though I do not have speci...
What is your primary use case for SmartBear API Hub?
The main use case for SmartBear API Hub was API testing and validation. I was working on some internal projects where I integrated APIs needed for a product, enabling an end-to-end integration of A...
What needs improvement with SoapUI?
SoapUI can be improved in the UI and the way it looks. It does the work, but there are sometimes many things that we do not understand. There should be documentation or docs where we can understand...
What is your primary use case for SoapUI?
The main use case of SoapUI is for API testing. We use SoapUI for API testing when we want to perform a performance test of our services that we have built. We use it when we have a lot of test cas...
What advice do you have for others considering SoapUI?
There are no such impacts. SoapUI is a good tool. It has not improved any performance or anything, but it is a good tool to have. SoapUI does not really handle a lot of data. It is something that w...
 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about SmartBear API Hub vs. SoapUI and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
908,800 professionals have used our research since 2012.