Pricing overview
Bored provides a cloud-based service for API mocking, designed to facilitate frontend development, rapid prototyping, and deterministic API testing. Its pricing model is structured into three main tiers: a free Developer Plan, a Pro Plan, and a Business Plan. Each tier offers different allocations for the number of mock APIs that can be created and the total number of requests processed per month. The pricing strategy aims to accommodate individual developers and small teams through to larger organizations with higher usage demands.
The service focuses on ease of use, providing a user interface for defining mock endpoints and managing responses. This approach positions Bored as a tool for quick setup in development and testing workflows, with pricing scaling based on the volume of mocks and API traffic a user generates. For detailed information on specific plan features and current pricing, users can refer to the official Bored pricing page.
Plans and tiers
Bored offers three distinct plans: Developer, Pro, and Business. Each plan is designed to meet varying levels of demand for API mocking services, primarily differentiated by the number of mock APIs allowed and the monthly request volume. All plans include access to core features such as API mocking, request/response logging, and scenario-based testing, as outlined in the Bored documentation.
| Plan | Monthly Price | Key Limits | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Developer | Free | 5 Mocks, 10,000 requests/month | Individual developers, small personal projects, initial evaluation |
| Pro | Starts at $19 | 50 Mocks, 100,000 requests/month | Small teams, professional developers, moderate project needs |
| Business | Starts at $99 | 200 Mocks, 1,000,000 requests/month | Larger teams, organizations with multiple projects, high-volume testing |
The Pro and Business plans offer increased capacity suitable for environments requiring more extensive API mocking capabilities. The starting prices for these plans are $19 per month for the Pro Plan and $99 per month for the Business Plan, with potential for custom pricing based on specific enterprise requirements that exceed the listed limits. These plans are designed to support continuous integration and delivery pipelines where reliable API mocks are essential for efficient development and testing cycles.
Free tier and limits
The Bored Developer Plan serves as the free tier, providing a foundational set of features for individuals and small-scale projects. This plan allows users to create up to 5 distinct mock APIs and process up to 10,000 requests per month. This allocation is suitable for developers who need to quickly set up mock endpoints for frontend development without immediate backend dependencies or for those evaluating the platform's capabilities before committing to a paid subscription.
Key aspects of the free tier include:
- Mock API Limit: Users can define and manage up to 5 unique mock API endpoints. Each mock can have custom responses and scenarios.
- Request Limit: A total of 10,000 API requests can be made to these mock endpoints within a calendar month.
- Core Features: Access to basic API mocking, request/response logging, and scenario management features are included, enabling fundamental testing and development workflows.
Exceeding the request limit on the Developer Plan typically results in service interruption until the next billing cycle or an upgrade to a paid plan. This structure ensures that the free tier remains sustainable for introductory use cases while encouraging users with higher demands to transition to a Pro or Business plan.
Real-world cost examples
To illustrate Bored's pricing, consider several common use cases:
Example 1: Individual Frontend Developer
- Scenario: An individual frontend developer is building a new application and needs to mock three different external APIs (e.g., user authentication, data retrieval, payment processing) to proceed with UI development before the actual backend services are ready. They anticipate making approximately 5,000 requests per month during active development.
- Plan Recommendation: Developer Plan
- Cost: $0 per month
- Rationale: The Developer Plan accommodates 5 mocks and 10,000 requests per month, which comfortably covers the developer's needs without incurring any cost.
Example 2: Small Development Team
- Scenario: A small team of three developers is working on a project that integrates with ten different third-party APIs. They require separate mock environments for development and testing, totaling around 30 unique mock APIs. Their combined testing and development activities generate approximately 75,000 requests per month.
- Plan Recommendation: Pro Plan
- Cost: $19 per month
- Rationale: The Pro Plan supports up to 50 mocks and 100,000 requests per month. This plan provides ample capacity for the team's mock API requirements and request volume, offering a cost-effective solution for collaborative development and testing.
Example 3: Enterprise Integration Testing
- Scenario: A large enterprise team is conducting extensive integration testing for a new platform that interacts with 150 different internal and external services. They need to manage over 100 distinct mock APIs across various testing environments (e.g., QA, staging) and anticipate generating 750,000 requests per month during their testing cycles.
- Plan Recommendation: Business Plan
- Cost: $99 per month
- Rationale: The Business Plan supports up to 200 mocks and 1,000,000 requests per month. This plan is designed for high-volume usage and complex scenarios, providing the necessary scale for large-scale enterprise integration testing.
How the pricing compares
Bored operates in the API mocking and testing space, competing with various tools that offer similar or related functionalities. When comparing Bored's pricing, it's useful to consider both dedicated mocking tools and broader API development platforms.
Dedicated Mocking Tools
- Mockoon: Mockoon is a desktop application that allows users to create mock APIs locally. It is open-source and free to use, with paid plans available for cloud deployment and advanced features. Its local-first approach means that core mocking functionality has no direct cost, but scaling and collaboration features often require a paid cloud service. Bored's cloud-native approach provides immediate collaboration and accessibility at its paid tiers, contrasting with Mockoon's desktop base.
- WireMock: WireMock is another popular open-source tool for API mocking, available as a Java library, standalone server, or cloud service. The open-source versions are free, but similar to Mockoon, cloud-hosted versions or managed services (like WireMock Cloud) come with subscription costs based on usage and features. WireMock's flexibility and extensibility are high, often requiring more setup and configuration than Bored's UI-driven approach.
Broader API Development Platforms
- Postman: Postman is a comprehensive API platform that includes API client functionality, testing, documentation, and mock servers. Postman offers a free tier with limited mock server requests (typically 1,000 requests per month for free users) and paid plans that scale up based on users, mock server calls, and monitoring. Postman's pricing is often user-based, plus usage for mock servers. For example, Postman offers a free plan that includes 1,000 mock server calls per month. Bored's focus is specifically on mocking, which may offer a simpler, more cost-effective solution for users whose primary need is robust API mocking without the full suite of API development tools.
- Cloud Providers (AWS, GCP, Azure): While not direct competitors in the same way, developers can build custom mocking solutions using serverless functions (e.g., AWS Lambda, Google Cloud Functions, Azure Functions) and API Gateways. This approach offers ultimate flexibility but involves significant development effort and ongoing operational costs based on function invocations, API gateway requests, and data transfer. For example, AWS Lambda's free tier includes 1 million requests per month. Bored provides an out-of-the-box solution, reducing the operational overhead associated with self-managed cloud infrastructure.
Overall, Bored's pricing model is competitive for users prioritizing a dedicated, easy-to-use cloud-based API mocking solution. Its tiered structure offers a predictable cost based on mock quantity and request volume, making it a viable option for those seeking to streamline API development and testing without the complexity or broader feature set of larger API platforms or self-hosted solutions.