Side by side

Smithy vs Stoplight Prism

Both stand on api design tools. Which one you can start free with, which one lets you read the code, and what each costs once you pay.

Smithy

Free plan LinuxMacWindows

Smithy provides a shared API model with validation and generation for clients, servers, and documentation. Its protocol and language coverage makes it suited to teams that want these outputs from one model.

Visit Smithy

Stoplight Prism

Free plan APISelf-hostedWeb

Choose Prism if you need a free, open-source server for mocking APIs, validating data, or checking a target API against its OpenAPI document. If you want hosted mock servers, Stoplight offers them through its Platform and Studio products.

Visit Stoplight Prism

The facts

	Smithy	Stoplight Prism
Free plan	Yes	Yes
Open source	Not published	Not published
Runs on	Linux, Mac, Windows	API, Self-hosted, Web
Lowest paid plan	Not published	Free or on request
Plans published	None	1
Maker	Not published	Not published
Website	smithy.io	github.com
On api design tools	#21 of 26	#17 of 26

Smithy: what it does well

Generates clients in ten languages.
Supports server code in five languages.
Checks model revisions for backward compatibility.
CLI runs on macOS, Linux, and Windows.
Open source under Apache 2.0.

What to know first

CLI support on Windows is limited to x64.
CLI requires platform-specific architecture support.

Stoplight Prism: what it does well

Creates mock servers from OpenAPI descriptions and Postman Collections.
Validates request and response data against an API description.
Proxy mode identifies differences between a specification and target API.
Runs standalone or in continuous integration.
Offers npm, binary, Docker, and Docker Compose installation options.

What to know first

Running through Node.js requires version 18.20.1 or later, with a lower minimum for Node.js 18.x.
Hosted mock servers are offered through Stoplight Platform and Stoplight Studio.

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