Pricing overview
Mocky provides a tiered pricing structure designed to accommodate various user needs, from individual developers requiring temporary mock API endpoints to teams needing more extensive and persistent mocking capabilities. The core of Mocky's pricing model revolves around the number of active mocks a user can maintain, the duration of their expiry, and access to premium features like custom domains and extended mock history. The service maintains a free tier with specific limitations, offering a starting point for basic mocking tasks before transitioning to paid subscriptions for expanded functionality and higher usage limits. This approach allows users to scale their mocking infrastructure as their project requirements grow, ensuring that costs align with actual usage and feature demands, as detailed on the Mocky premium page.
For context, API mocking tools are essential in modern software development workflows, particularly for frontend development and testing, allowing teams to proceed without a fully functional backend. Services like Mocky simplify this by offering quick setup for HTTP responses. The value proposition of such tools often includes reducing development blockers and enabling parallel development efforts, which can impact project timelines and costs. Enterprises often seek solutions that offer advanced features like dynamic data, request matching, and integration with CI/CD pipelines, which may influence their choice between simpler tools like Mocky and more comprehensive platforms such as Kong's API mocking solutions.
Plans and tiers
Mocky's paid offerings are structured into several premium tiers, each designed to provide incremental benefits over the free tier. These tiers primarily differ in the number of active mocks allowed, the maximum expiry time for mocks, the retention period for mock history, and the availability of custom domain support. As of 2026, the starting paid tier, Premium Basic, is priced at $5 per month, offering a substantial increase in limits compared to the free option.
The following table outlines the key aspects of Mocky's primary plans:
| Plan | Price (per month) | Key Limits / Features | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free Tier | $0 | Up to 50 active mocks, limited expiry (e.g., 24 hours), basic history | Individual developers, quick tests, learning, small personal projects |
| Premium Basic | $5 | More active mocks (e.g., 200), extended expiry (e.g., 1 month), longer history, no custom domains | Freelancers, small teams, projects requiring more persistent mocks |
| Premium Pro | $10 (example) | Significantly more active mocks (e.g., 1000), longer expiry (e.g., 6 months), full history, custom domains | Growing teams, multiple projects, client demos, integration testing |
| Premium Business | Custom pricing (example: $20+) | Highest limits for mocks and expiry, extensive history, custom domains, priority support, team features | Enterprises, large development teams, high-volume testing environments |
Note: Specific numerical limits for 'more active mocks', 'extended expiry', and 'longer history' in the Premium Pro and Business tiers are illustrative examples. Users should refer to the official Mocky premium page for the most current and precise details.
Free tier and limits
Mocky's free tier is an entry-level offering that allows users to create and manage up to 50 active mocks concurrently. This tier is designed to provide sufficient functionality for individual developers, students, and those exploring the platform's capabilities for basic API mocking. Mocks created under the free tier typically have a limited expiry duration, often set to 24 hours or similar short periods, meaning they are automatically deleted after this time. This characteristic makes the free tier ideal for temporary testing, demonstrating frontend behavior, or rapid prototyping where the backend is not yet available or stable.
The free tier includes access to the core features of Mocky, such as defining custom HTTP response codes, headers, and body content directly through a web interface. Users can also simulate network delays, which is beneficial for testing UI responsiveness under various latency conditions. However, advanced features such as persistent mocks, custom domain mapping, or extensive mock history are reserved for premium subscribers. The 50-mock limit facilitates quick setup without overwhelming the user with too many long-lived mock endpoints, encouraging a lean and efficient approach to testing, as described in the Mocky documentation. For scenarios requiring more mocks or longer-lasting endpoints, upgrading to a paid plan becomes necessary.
Real-world cost examples
Understanding Mocky's pricing in practical terms helps developers and teams budget effectively. Here are a few real-world scenarios illustrating potential costs:
-
Individual Frontend Developer:
A solo developer is building a new React application and needs to mock three API endpoints for user authentication, product listings, and order submission. Each mock needs to persist for the duration of a sprint, approximately two weeks. The developer also wants to test an edge case with a 500 Internal Server Error response. With only three active mocks needed and a two-week persistence requirement, the free tier might be sufficient if the mocks are re-created periodically. However, to avoid manual re-creation and ensure consistent mock availability for two weeks, upgrading to the Premium Basic plan for $5/month would provide ample active mocks (e.g., 200) and a longer expiry (e.g., one month). This ensures uninterrupted development without managing mock lifecycles.
Estimated Cost: $0 (if re-creating free mocks) or $5/month (for Premium Basic for convenience).
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Small Development Team (5 members):
A team of five is working on a microservices project. They require around 50-75 active mocks across different services for integration testing and parallel frontend/backend development. Some mocks need to last for a month, while others are temporary for daily feature development. The team also wants to use a custom domain for their mocks (e.g.,
api-mocks.mycompany.com) to reflect a production-like environment. The free tier would be insufficient due to the number of mocks and the lack of custom domain support. The Premium Pro plan, potentially around $10/month, would offer enough active mocks (e.g., 1000), longer expiry, and the crucial custom domain feature, streamlining their testing process.Estimated Cost: $10/month (for Premium Pro).
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Enterprise-level QA Department:
A large enterprise QA department needs to simulate hundreds of API responses for end-to-end testing across multiple projects and teams. They require high availability, longer mock expiry times (several months), and team management features to share and manage mocks efficiently. They also need priority support for critical testing cycles. This scenario clearly exceeds the limits of standard premium plans. A Premium Business plan with custom pricing would be necessary. This plan would offer the highest limits on active mocks, longest expiry, and dedicated support, integrating seamlessly into their large-scale testing infrastructure.
Estimated Cost: Custom pricing, potentially $20+/month, depending on negotiated terms and specific usage requirements.
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Educational Institution / Workshop:
A university department is running a workshop on API consumption, and 30 students each need to create 2-3 mock endpoints for a week-long project. The total number of mocks would be 60-90. While individual students might use the free tier, managing 30 separate accounts could be cumbersome. A single Premium Basic or Pro account could be used by the instructor to create and share mocks, or students could be encouraged to sign up for their own free accounts, accepting the 24-hour expiry limit. For a smooth, uninterrupted learning experience without daily mock re-creation, a Premium Basic plan for the instructor would be a pragmatic choice.
Estimated Cost: $0 (individual free accounts) or $5/month (instructor's Premium Basic account).
How the pricing compares
Mocky's pricing strategy emphasizes simplicity and affordability, especially for individual developers and small teams. Its free tier and low-cost premium options position it as an accessible tool for basic API mocking needs. When comparing it to alternatives, several factors come into play:
- Complexity and Features: More comprehensive API mocking platforms, such as Postman's Mock Servers or SwaggerHub's API Mocking, often offer advanced features like dynamic data generation, request matching based on parameters, GraphQL mocking, and deeper integration with API design tools and CI/CD pipelines. These platforms typically come with higher pricing tiers, reflecting their broader feature sets and suitability for complex enterprise environments. Mocky's strength lies in its straightforward approach, making it quicker to set up for simple scenarios, but potentially less capable for highly dynamic or stateful mock requirements.
- Self-Hosted vs. SaaS: Some alternatives, like WireMock or Mountebank, are open-source and can be self-hosted. While this eliminates subscription costs, it introduces operational overhead for infrastructure, maintenance, and scaling. Mocky, as a SaaS solution, abstracts away these concerns, offering convenience at a predictable monthly cost. The decision between self-hosted and SaaS often depends on a team's budget for operational staff versus subscription fees, as well as specific security and compliance requirements.
- Free Tier Generosity: Mocky's free tier, with 50 active mocks, is relatively generous for individual use cases. Many competitors offer free tiers with fewer mocks, stricter rate limits, or shorter expiry times, pushing users towards paid plans sooner. This makes Mocky an attractive starting point for developers who need to quickly spin up temporary endpoints without committing to a subscription. For instance, some API gateways like Cloudflare's API Gateway mocking capabilities may be part of a broader platform, where mocking is just one feature among many, and its cost is bundled into the overall service. Mocky focuses purely on mocking, simplifying its pricing model.
- Scalability: While Mocky offers scaling through its premium tiers, very large organizations with thousands of constantly changing mock endpoints might find dedicated enterprise-grade mocking solutions or custom-built internal tools more suitable. Mocky's model is best suited for scenarios where the number of active mocks, while significant, remains within manageable limits for typical development and testing teams, rather than massive, concurrent load testing scenarios with highly dynamic data needs.