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7 Best Python HTTP Clients

Yelyzaveta Nechytailo

2025-03-184 min read

HTTP clients are essential tools in Python development, serving as the bridge between your application and web services. Whether you're building APIs, automating web tasks, or developing full-scale web applications, a reliable HTTP client is essential for sending requests and processing responses.

In this article, we'll examine the top 7 Python HTTP clients, exploring their features, use cases, and implementation approaches. We'll also show how these clients can be used with Oxylabs’ Residential Proxies – another useful step if you want to overcome common web access challenges like IP blocking, rate limiting, and geo-restrictions.

Top Python HTTP Clients

Requests

Requests is Python's most popular HTTP client library, known for its intuitive API and human-friendly approach to HTTP. Due to its simplicity and readability, this library is often described as "HTTP for Humans."

# Install using pip:
# pip install requests

import requests


# Basic GET request
response_1 = requests.get('https://sandbox.oxylabs.io/products/1')
print(response_1.status_code)
print(response_1.text)

# POST request with data
response_2 = requests.post(
    'https://httpbin.org/post',
    data={'key': 'value'}
)
print(response_2.text)

Requests supports all HTTP methods, cookies, headers, authentication methods, and automatic content decoding. It handles complex operations like file uploads and SSL verification with minimal code.

How to use requests with proxies

When performing Python web scraping at scale, you'll quickly encounter anti-bot measures like IP-based rate limiting, geographic restrictions, and outright blocking. A residential proxy solves these challenges by routing your requests through real residential IP addresses, making your scraping requests appear as regular user traffic from different locations.

Requests makes integrating with Oxylabs' Residential Proxies straightforward:

import requests


# Oxylabs proxy credentials
USER = 'USERNAME'
PASS = 'PASSWORD'

# Define the proxies dict for HTTP and HTTPS websites.
proxies = {
    'http': f'https://customer-{USER}:{PASS}@pr.oxylabs.io:7777',
    'https': f'https://customer-{USER}:{PASS}@pr.oxylabs.io:7777'
}

# Make a request through the proxy
response = requests.get('https://ip.oxylabs.io/', proxies=proxies)
print(response.text)

Learn more about Requests library by checking out a comprehensive guide on rotating proxies in Python with Requests and AIOHTTP.

HTTPX

HTTPX is a next-generation HTTP client for Python, offering both synchronous and asynchronous APIs with full HTTP/2 support. It's designed as a modern alternative to Requests while maintaining a similar, familiar API.

# Install using pip:
# pip install httpx

import httpx
import asyncio


# Synchronous GET request
with httpx.Client() as client:
    response = client.get('https://sandbox.oxylabs.io/products/1')
    print(response.status_code)
    print(response.text)

# Asynchronous GET request
async def fetch():
    async with httpx.AsyncClient() as client:
        response = await client.get('https://sandbox.oxylabs.io/products/1')
        print(response.status_code)

asyncio.run(fetch())

# Synchronous POST request
with httpx.Client() as client:
    response = client.post(
        'https://httpbin.org/post',
        data={'key': 'value'}
    )
    print(response.text)

How to use HTTPX with proxies

HTTPX provides easy integration with Residential Proxies for both synchronous and asynchronous operations:

import httpx


# Oxylabs proxy credentials
USER = 'USERNAME'
PASS = 'PASSWORD'

# Format the proxy URL
proxy_url = f'https://customer-{USER}:{PASS}@pr.oxylabs.io:7777'

# Synchronous client with proxy
with httpx.Client(proxies=proxy_url) as client:
    response = client.get('https://ip.oxylabs.io/')
    print(response.text)

For asynchronous operations with Oxylabs' proxies:

import httpx
import asyncio


# Oxylabs proxy credentials
USER = 'USERNAME'
PASS = 'PASSWORD'

# Format the proxy URL
proxy_url = f'https://customer-{USER}:{PASS}@pr.oxylabs.io:7777'

# Asynchronous GET request with proxies
async def fetch():
    async with httpx.AsyncClient(proxy=proxy_url) as client:
        response = await client.get('https://ip.oxylabs.io/')
        print(response.text)

asyncio.run(fetch())

aiohttp

Aiohttp is a powerful asynchronous HTTP client built on Python's asyncio library. It's designed specifically for high-performance applications that need to handle many concurrent connections efficiently.

# Install using pip:
# pip install aiohttp

import aiohttp
import asyncio


# Asynchronous GET request
async def fetch():
    async with aiohttp.ClientSession() as session:
        async with session.get(
            'https://sandbox.oxylabs.io/products/1'
        ) as response:
            
            print(response.status)
            data = await response.text()
            print(data)

asyncio.run(fetch())

# Asynchronous POST request
async def post():
    async with aiohttp.ClientSession() as session:
        async with session.post(
            'https://httpbin.org/post',
            data={'key': 'value'}
        ) as response:
            
            data = await response.text()
            print(data)

asyncio.run(post())

Aiohttp's session-based design encourages connection pooling and reuse. It excels in applications requiring many parallel requests, like web scrapers or microservice architectures.

How to use aiohttp with proxies

Integrating aiohttp with proxy servers is another effective way to distribute your concurrent requests across thousands of legitimate residential IPs, dramatically improving your scraping success rate. It works seamlessly with Oxylabs' Residential Proxies for high-performance asynchronous web scraping:

import aiohttp
import asyncio


# Oxylabs proxy credentials
USER = 'USERNAME'
PASS = 'PASSWORD'

# Format the proxy URL
proxy_url = f'https://customer-{USER}:{PASS}@pr.oxylabs.io:7777'

async def fetch():    
    async with aiohttp.ClientSession() as session:
        async with session.get(
            'https://ip.oxylabs.io/',
            proxy=proxy_url
        ) as response:
            
            data = await response.text()
            print(data)

asyncio.run(fetch())

For concurrent requests using Oxylabs' proxies, which is particularly useful for large-scale scraping:

import aiohttp
import asyncio


# Oxylabs proxy credentials
USER = 'USERNAME'
PASS = 'PASSWORD'

# Format the proxy URL
proxy_url = f'https://customer-{USER}:{PASS}@pr.oxylabs.io:7777'

async def fetch_multiple_urls(urls):    
    async with aiohttp.ClientSession() as session:
        tasks = []
        for url in urls:
            tasks.append(fetch_single_url(session, url, proxy_url))
        
        return await asyncio.gather(*tasks)

async def fetch_single_url(session, url, proxy_url):
    async with session.get(url, proxy=proxy_url) as response:
        return {
            'url': url,
            'status': response.status,
            'content': await response.text()
        }

# Example usage
urls_to_scrape = [
    'https://sandbox.oxylabs.io/products/1',
    'https://sandbox.oxylabs.io/products/2',
    'https://sandbox.oxylabs.io/products/3'
]

results = asyncio.run(fetch_multiple_urls(urls_to_scrape))
for result in results:
    print(f'URL: {result["url"]}, Status: {result["status"]}')
    print(f'Content snippet: {result["content"][100:200]}\n')

urllib3

urllib3 is a powerful, low-level HTTP client that provides features not found in the standard library's urllib modules. It offers thread safety, connection pooling, client-side SSL/TLS verification, and more.

# If needed, install using pip:
# pip install urllib3

import urllib3


http = urllib3.PoolManager()

# GET request
response_1 = http.request('GET', 'https://sandbox.oxylabs.io/products/1')
print(response_1.status)
print(response_1.data.decode('utf-8'))

# POST request
response_2 = http.request(
    'POST',
    'https://httpbin.org/post',
    fields={'key': 'value'}
)
print(response_2.data.decode('utf-8'))

urllib3 forms the foundation for Requests, but can be used directly when you need more control over connection pooling or when implementing custom retry logic.

How to use urllib3 with proxies

Combining urllib3's low-level capabilities with proxies provides a powerful solution for advanced scraping scenarios, giving you precise control over connection pooling, retry policies, and IP rotation.

Here’s how urllib3 works with Oxylabs' Residential Proxies:

import urllib3


# Create a basic auth header with Oxylabs proxy credentials
auth = urllib3.make_headers(proxy_basic_auth='USERNAME:PASSWORD')

# Create proxy manager with headers
proxy_manager = urllib3.ProxyManager(
    'https://pr.oxylabs.io:7777',
    proxy_headers=auth
)

# Make a request through the proxy
response = proxy_manager.request('GET', 'https://ip.oxylabs.io/')
print(response.data.decode('utf-8'))

httplib2

httplib2 is a comprehensive HTTP client library with caching, persistent connections, and support for many authentication schemes. While older than some alternatives, it remains relevant for specific use cases.

# Install using pip:
# pip install http2lib

import httplib2
import urllib.parse # Required for POST requests


http = httplib2.Http()

# GET request
response_1, content_1 = http.request(
    'https://sandbox.oxylabs.io/products/1',
    'GET'
)
print(response_1.status)
print(content_1.decode())

# POST request
response_2, content_2 = http.request(
    'https://httpbin.org/post',
    'POST',
    body=urllib.parse.urlencode({'key': 'value'}),
    headers={'Content-Type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded'}
)
print(content_2.decode())

How to use httplib2 with proxies

Web scraping projects often need to balance efficient data collection with minimizing request volume to avoid detection. httplib2's built-in caching capabilities, when combined with proxies from best proxy providers, create an ideal solution for scraping scenarios where you need to revisit the same URLs while maintaining anonymity and minimizing bandwidth usage.

While httplib2 has more limited proxy support compared to other libraries, you can still integrate Oxylabs' Residential Proxies:

import httplib2
from httplib2 import socks


# Configure Oxylabs proxies with httplib2
proxy_info = httplib2.ProxyInfo(
    proxy_type=socks.PROXY_TYPE_HTTP,
    proxy_host='pr.oxylabs.io',
    proxy_port=7777, # Make sure this is an integer
    proxy_user='customer-USERNAME',
    proxy_pass='PASSWORD'
)

# Create HTTP client with proxy configuration
http = httplib2.Http(proxy_info=proxy_info)

# Make request
response, content = http.request('https://ip.oxylabs.io/', 'GET')
print(content.decode('utf-8'))

PycURL

PycURL provides Python bindings for libcurl, one of the most powerful and feature-rich HTTP clients available. It offers excellent performance and supports numerous protocols beyond HTTP, including FTP, SMTP, and more.

# Install using pip:
# pip install pycurl

import pycurl
from io import BytesIO


# GET request
buffer = BytesIO()
c = pycurl.Curl()
c.setopt(c.URL, 'https://sandbox.oxylabs.io/products/1')
# Override the default Pycurl User-Agent
c.setopt(c.HTTPHEADER, ['User-Agent: Test'])
c.setopt(c.WRITEDATA, buffer)
c.perform()
print(c.getinfo(pycurl.RESPONSE_CODE))
c.close()

print(buffer.getvalue().decode('utf-8'))

# POST request
data = {'key': 'value'}
post_data = '&'.join([f'{k}={v}' for k, v in data.items()])

post_buffer = BytesIO()
c_post = pycurl.Curl()
c_post.setopt(c_post.URL, 'https://httpbin.org/post')
c_post.setopt(c_post.POSTFIELDS, post_data)
c_post.setopt(c_post.WRITEDATA, post_buffer)
c_post.perform()
c_post.close()

print(post_buffer.getvalue().decode('utf-8'))

PycURL is ideal for applications that need fine-grained control over the HTTP request process or require high performance for critical operations.

How to use PycURL with proxies

Advanced web scraping projects often need maximum performance and granular control over HTTP requests. PycURL offers exceptional speed and fine-tuned request handling that, when paired with proxies, creates a powerful scraping solution capable of handling challenging targets with sophisticated anti-bot measures.

PycURL offers advanced control for working with Oxylabs' Residential Proxies:

import pycurl
from io import BytesIO


buffer = BytesIO()
c = pycurl.Curl()
c.setopt(c.URL, 'https://ip.oxylabs.io/')

# Oxylabs proxy configuration
c.setopt(c.PROXY, 'pr.oxylabs.io')
c.setopt(c.PROXYPORT, 7777)
c.setopt(c.PROXYUSERPWD, 'customer-USERNAME:PASSWORD')
c.setopt(c.PROXYTYPE, pycurl.PROXYTYPE_HTTP)

c.setopt(c.WRITEDATA, buffer)
c.perform()
c.close()

print(buffer.getvalue().decode('utf-8'))

httpcore

httpcore is a minimal, low-level HTTP client for Python that provides an interface to handle HTTP requests. It serves as the foundation for HTTPX and focuses on providing solid HTTP/1.1 and HTTP/2 support.

# Install using pip:
# pip install httpcore

import httpcore
# Needed for encoding form data
from urllib.parse import urlencode


# GET request
http = httpcore.ConnectionPool()
response_1 = http.request('GET', 'https://sandbox.oxylabs.io/products/1')
print(response_1.status)
print(response_1.read().decode('utf-8'))
response_1.close(), http.close()

# POST request
encoded_data = urlencode({'key': 'value'}).encode('utf-8')

http_post = httpcore.ConnectionPool()
response_2 = http_post.request(
    'POST',
    'https://httpbin.org/post',
    headers=[('Content-Type', 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded')],
    content=encoded_data
)
print(response_2.read().decode('utf-8'))
response_2.close(), http_post.close()

httpcore is typically used as a building block for higher-level libraries rather than directly by application developers, but it provides clean abstractions when direct control is needed.

How to use httpcore with proxies

Modern web scraping frameworks often need a low-level yet flexible HTTP foundation. httpcore provides this foundation with clean abstractions and HTTP/2 support, making it ideal for custom scraping tools. Integrating httpcore with proxies gives you the building blocks for creating sophisticated scrapers capable of handling modern websites with advanced protection mechanisms.

Working with httpcore and Oxylabs' Residential Proxies requires a bit more setup, but offers fine-grained control:

import httpcore


# Oxylabs proxy configuration
proxy = httpcore.HTTPProxy(
    proxy_url='https://pr.oxylabs.io:7777',
    proxy_auth=('customer-USERNAME', 'PASSWORD')
)

# Send a request with the proxy
response = proxy.request('GET', 'https://ip.oxylabs.io/')
print(response.read().decode('utf-8'))
response.close(), proxy.close()

Python HTTP client comparison table

Library	Monthly Downloads	GitHub Stars	Async Support	Session Management	Proxy Support	SSL Verification	HTTP/2 Support
Requests	605M+	52.6K+	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
HTTPX	151M+	13.8K+	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
aiohttp	222M+	15.5K+	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
urllib3	704M+	3.8K+	No	Yes (Pools)	Yes	Yes	No
httplib2	67M+	450+	No	No	Limited	Yes	No
PycURL	1.7M+	1.1K+	No	No	Advanced	Yes	No
httpcore	140M+	450+	Yes	Yes (Pools)	Yes	Yes	Yes

Conclusion

Choosing the right HTTP client for your Python project depends on several factors, including your performance requirements, concurrency needs, and specific use cases. Learn the differences between JavaScript and Python for scraping on our blog to further deepen your knowledge.

When working with web scraping or applications that need to bypass IP restrictions, all these clients can be enhanced with proxy support. The combination of a well-chosen HTTP client and properly configured proxies, such as Oxylabs' Residential Proxies, mobile proxies, or rotating proxies, can help you build robust, efficient web applications that overcome common access limitations.

Want to test out if proxies are suitable for your project safely and securely? Take advantage of our high-quality free proxies that will help you discover the benefits of premium proxy servers.

About the author

Yelyzaveta Nechytailo

Senior Content Manager

Yelyzaveta Nechytailo is a Senior Content Manager at Oxylabs. After working as a writer in fashion, e-commerce, and media, she decided to switch her career path and immerse in the fascinating world of tech. And believe it or not, she absolutely loves it! On weekends, you’ll probably find Yelyzaveta enjoying a cup of matcha at a cozy coffee shop, scrolling through social media, or binge-watching investigative TV series.

Learn more about Yelyzaveta Nechytailo

All information on Oxylabs Blog is provided on an "as is" basis and for informational purposes only. We make no representation and disclaim all liability with respect to your use of any information contained on Oxylabs Blog or any third-party websites that may be linked therein. Before engaging in scraping activities of any kind you should consult your legal advisors and carefully read the particular website's terms of service or receive a scraping license.