Python HTTP Clients: Requests vs. HTTPX vs. AIOHTTP

The blog post explores the evolution of Python HTTP clients, highlighting the transition from Python's built-in urllib module to popular third-party libraries like Requests, HTTPX, and AIOHTTP. Requests, released in 2011, became the go-to choice for its user-friendly design, but its synchronous nature limited its use in modern asynchronous programming environments. AIOHTTP, introduced in 2014, embraced Python's asyncio framework, allowing for efficient handling of concurrent connections, making it ideal for high-performance applications. HTTPX, launched in 2019, bridges the gap by offering both synchronous and asynchronous capabilities similar to Requests, while also supporting HTTP/2 and type annotations. The post discusses each library's strengths, weaknesses, and ideal use cases, with HTTPX emerging as a versatile choice for developers needing flexibility between synchronous and asynchronous operations. The post also explains how Speakeasy uses HTTPX in its SDKs to provide a seamless experience for both operation modes, and illustrates the ease of switching between HTTP clients through examples.