HTTP Client for Rust: Best Libraries (reqwest, ureq…

HTTP client for Rust: overview of the best libraries

Rust is a systems programming language that is increasingly used for creating web services, microservices, and network tools. Choosing the right HTTP client is critical for performance, security, and development convenience. In this article, we will look at three of the most popular libraries for making HTTP requests in the Rust ecosystem: reqwest, ureq, and hyper. Each of them has its own strengths and is suitable for different scenarios.

1. Reqwest — the universal choice

Reqwest is arguably the most popular library for HTTP requests in Rust. It is built on top of hyper and provides a high-level, ergonomic API. It supports both asynchronous (via tokio) and synchronous requests (by enabling the corresponding feature flag).

Key features:

Asynchronous and synchronous modes.
Automatic handling of redirects.
JSON support (serialization/deserialization via serde).
Support for cookies, proxies, TLS.
Convenient work with forms and multipart data.

Example of an asynchronous GET request:

use reqwest;use serde::Deserialize;

#[derive(Deserialize, Debug)]struct ApiResponse {    userId: u32,    id: u32,    title: String,    completed: bool,}

#[tokio::main]async fn main() -> Result<(), reqwest::Error> {    let url = "https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/todos/1";    let response: ApiResponse = reqwest::get(url)        .await?        .json()        .await?;

    println!("{:#?}", response);    Ok(())}

This example shows how easy it is to make a GET request and deserialize the JSON response into a struct. Reqwest is ideal for most projects: from simple scripts to large web applications.

2. Ureq — minimalism and simplicity

Ureq is a lightweight, synchronous HTTP client. Its main advantage is a minimal number of dependencies and no need for an asynchronous runtime. You simply add the crate and use it. It is great for CLI utilities, scripts, and situations where asynchrony is not needed.

Key features:

Fully synchronous (blocking) API.
Minimal number of dependencies (does not require tokio).
Built-in support for JSON and cookies.
Simple work with headers and parameters.

Example of a POST request with JSON:

use ureq;use serde::Serialize;

#[derive(Serialize)]struct NewTodo {    title: String,    completed: bool,}

fn main() -> Result<(), ureq::Error> {    let todo = NewTodo {        title: "Learn Rust".into(),        completed: false,    };

    let response = ureq::post("https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/todos")        .set("Content-Type", "application/json")        .send_json(&todo)?;

    let status = response.status();    let body = response.into_string()?;    println!("Status: {}, Body: {}", status, body);    Ok(())}

Ureq forgives beginners' mistakes and allows for rapid prototyping. However, it is not suitable for high-load asynchronous systems.

3. Hyper — the foundation of the ecosystem

Hyper is a low-level, asynchronous library upon which reqwest and many other crates are built. It provides full control over the HTTP connection but requires more code and an understanding of asynchronous programming. It is used in production systems where performance is critical (for example, in databases or proxy servers).