TL;DR
You don't need Postman or a paid tool to test WebSockets. In 2026, the four tools that cover 99% of real debugging are: the browser DevTools Network tab, an in-browser tester, wscat for CI, and a 20-line Node.js client. Pick by what you're verifying — handshake, message flow, close code, or auth header — not by habit.
If you want to skip the survey and just paste a wss:// URL into something that works, open a free browser-based WebSocket tester — no install, no signup, full handshake + close-code output.
The Bug That Inspired This Post
A real one. A team I was helping had a chat app dropping connections in production every 47 seconds. Local: fine. Staging: fine. Production: dead at 47s, every time.
