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YAML

YAML Ain't Markup Language

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YAML is a human-readable data serialization language designed for exchanging data between languages with different data structures. It addresses the need to represent complex, nested data in a format that is easy for both people and machines to read and write, commonly used for configuration files and data interchange.

As a language-independent format, YAML supports hierarchical structures and custom data types, with specifications ranging from YAML 1.0 through YAML 1.2.2. Related resources include a YAML playground, schema definition tools, a test matrix for comparing implementations, and a test suite. YAML is widely used for infrastructure definitions in tools such as Kubernetes, Docker Compose, and Terraform, as well as for CI/CD pipelines, cloud-native applications, and configuration management.

YAML is intended for developers and engineers working across programming languages and platforms. It is an open specification published by yaml.org, with no pricing or packaging details indicated.

12 alternatives to YAML

Ranked by how well each tool replaces YAML: shared features, audience, price and popularity.

  1. GraphQL

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    Covers 6 of 8 key features.

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  2. curl

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  3. JSON

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    Covers 2 of 8 key features.

    54 out of 100 match—

  4. Apiary

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    Covers 4 of 8 key features and has a free plan.

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  5. Fern

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    Covers 5 of 8 key features and has a free plan.

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  6. Swagger

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    Covers 1 of 8 key features.

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  7. Insomnia

    The collaborative API development platform.

    Covers 5 of 8 key features and has a free plan.

    Free planOpen source
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  8. Graphile

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    Covers 5 of 8 key features and has a free plan.

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  9. RapidAPI for Mac

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    Covers 3 of 8 key features and has a free plan.

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  10. Dash

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    Covers 5 of 8 key features.

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  11. JSONFormatter.org

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    Covers 5 of 8 key features and has a free plan.

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  12. Beeceptor

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    Covers 6 of 8 key features and has a free plan.

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