Specmatic vs Pact & Pactflow comparison

Comparison: Specmatic vs Pact.io and Pactflow.io

Specmatic is unique in its approach towards leveraging API Specification as Executable Contracts. However putting ourselves in the shoes of someone evaluating a process or a tool, it always helps to have detailed comparisons with other tools that may have some similarity. This is the first post in a series where we will be covering techniques and tools that try to address the problem of identifying compatibility issues between microservices early.

In this post we will be be looking at Pact which largely popularised Contract Testing. Pact.io or OpenSource Pact is tool that I have personally used and it makes for a great addition to the Dev experience if your development style / process aligns with the workflow of the tool (Consumer Driven Contract Testing). Pactflow.io supports another technique called Bi-Directional Contract Testing (BDCT) which is an interesting approach. Specmatic and Contract Driven Development differ significantly from Pact. We built Specmatic out of our own necessity where Pact did not fit the bill for us. We have tried to cover as many areas of comparison as possible, however we would love to hear if you have any other criteria on which you would like to see additional details.