What is the difference between Requests and other HTTP libraries for Python?

Python offers several libraries to handle HTTP requests, with the requests library being one of the most popular due to its simplicity and ease of use. However, it's important to compare it with other available HTTP libraries to understand the differences and choose the right tool for a specific task. Let's look at the most commonly used HTTP libraries in Python and contrast them with requests.

requests

requests is an HTTP library designed to be user-friendly and intuitive. It's built on top of urllib3 and abstracts much of the complexity involved in making HTTP requests. Here are some key features:

• Automatic management of connection pooling and session cookies.
• Support for form data, multipart file uploads, and parameters.
• Implements best practices by default, such as respecting HTTP header case sensitivity.
• Elegant and simple API that allows for easy sending of HTTP requests.

import requests

response = requests.get('https://api.example.com/data')
print(response.json())

urllib and urllib2

urllib and urllib2 are part of the Python standard library. urllib2 was used in Python 2 and has been split into urllib.request, urllib.parse, and urllib.error in Python 3. These modules are more verbose and less convenient than requests, but they can be used without installing any external packages.

from urllib.request import urlopen

response = urlopen('https://api.example.com/data')
print(response.read())

http.client

Another part of the Python standard library, http.client (known as httplib in Python 2), provides a low-level HTTP interface that offers more control but requires more boilerplate code. It is used when you need to handle HTTP requests at a lower level.

from http.client import HTTPConnection

conn = HTTPConnection('api.example.com')
conn.request('GET', '/data')
response = conn.getresponse()
print(response.read())

aiohttp

aiohttp is an asynchronous HTTP client/server framework that allows you to write asynchronous code using async/await syntax. It is built on top of asyncio and is suitable for handling a large number of simultaneous connections or for building high-performance servers.

import aiohttp
import asyncio

async def fetch_data():
    async with aiohttp.ClientSession() as session:
        async with session.get('https://api.example.com/data') as response:
            return await response.json()

loop = asyncio.get_event_loop()
data = loop.run_until_complete(fetch_data())
print(data)

httpx

httpx is a fully featured HTTP client for Python 3, which provides synchronous and asynchronous APIs. It is seen as a potential successor to requests with support for HTTP/2 and providing a similar user-friendly interface.

import httpx

response = httpx.get('https://api.example.com/data')
print(response.json())

Summary

• Simplicity: requests is known for its simple API, making it a go-to choice for many developers when they need to perform HTTP requests without dealing with the complexities of the underlying protocols.
• Standard Library: urllib and http.client are part of the Python standard library, so they do not require any additional installation. They can be more verbose and harder to work with for common tasks.
• Asynchronous Support: Libraries like aiohttp and httpx support asynchronous request handling, making them suitable for IO-bound operations and high-performance applications.
• Feature Set: Some libraries like httpx offer additional features such as HTTP/2 support.

When choosing a library, consider factors like ease of use, the complexity of the task, performance requirements, and whether you need asynchronous support. requests is often sufficient for simple to moderately complex tasks where synchronous code is acceptable. For more advanced use cases, especially those requiring asynchronous operations or HTTP/2, consider aiohttp or httpx.