Postman is a complete API development platform that helps you manage your APIs in every stage of development, from designing and testing, to publishing API documentation and monitoring. Postman started as a Chrome browser extension and quickly became one of the most widely used API tools by developers all over the world.

Postman is available as a native app (built on Electron) for all major operating systems, including macOS, Linux, and Windows. This article guides you through the installation of Postman on Ubuntu 20.04.

Installing Postman #

The easiest way is to install Postman on Ubuntu 18.04 is by using the snappy packaging system. Snaps are self-contained software packages that include the binary all dependencies needed to run the application. Snap packages can be installed from either the command-line or via the Ubuntu Software application.

Postman snap package is distributed and maintained by the developers of Postman.

To install the Postman snap, open your terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run the following command as a user with sudo privileges :

sudo snap install postman

The download may take some time depending on the speed of your connection. On success, the following output is displayed:

postman 7.30.1 from Postman, Inc. (postman-inc✓) installed

Snap packages are easy to upgrade and secure. Whenever a new version is released, the Postman package will be automatically updated in the background.

Alternatively, you can install Postman using the Ubuntu Software Center. Simply search for Postman and click install.

Using Postman #

In the Activities search bar type “Postman” and click on the icon to launch the application.

When you start Postman for the first time, a window like the following will appear asking you to log in or create a new account:

Creating an account allows you to organize your work in Workspaces, create backups, and sync your data across multiple devices. If you don’t want to log in, click on “Skip signing in and take me straight to the app”.

To illustrate how Postman works, we will send a simple Get request to an online REST API and receive a JSON response containing users list.

Open a new tab, enter https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/users, leave the request type as GET and click on the SEND button. On success, the response will return a JSON object containing an array of users.

The Postman Learning Center is a good starting point for learning how to create Postman workspaces, collections, environments, and more.

Conclusion #

We’ve shown you how to install Postman on your Ubuntu 20.04 desktop. You can now explore your new API tool and start working on your projects.

If you have any questions, please leave a comment below.