Difference between the HTTP Request libraries in Javascript

For making a mobile or web application dynamic, it's necessary to connect the client app with the server. And for this there are different HTTP libraries available today, As a developer, it's important to know the difference between all these so that one could choose the best library suitable for the app requirement.

 

In this article, We will see the pros and cons of a few most popular HTTP libraries

 

Axios

It is the most popular HTTP library and preferred on all the online teaching platform. It is promse-based HTTP library for performing request on client(browser) as well as server side(Node.js). 

 

Pros

• Promise based
• Works on both browser and Node.js
• Request can set or cacel
• response timeout can be set with it
• It supports protection against Cross-site request forgery, XSRF
• Most popular HTTP library used with in different javascript client side frameworks.

 

Cons

• Not very easy to use

 

Fetch

It is a native browser API for making HTTP Request. It is very similar to XMLHttpRequest, Also very easy to use it in the client-side application.

Pros

• It is supported by all modern browsers.
• It uses promise-based approach
• Simple syntax, One can easily integrate it in the app

Cons

• Don't have the option to cancel the request.
• If your server uses cookie-based authentication then fetch does not send cookies by default.
• It does not work in server-side

Superagent

It is a Promise-based light-weight API. Similar to axios, It works in both browsers (all modern browsers) and Nodejs.

 

Pros

• It works for both Browser and Node.
• Comes with other common plugins
• Multiple functions chaining to send requests
• Easily configurable

Cons

• Does not follow any standard

Request

It is one of the easiest ways of making HTTP Request in any javascript framework. Using this approach we need less code than other methods available for making HTTP Request. This approach is not promise based, But npm packages are available which make it promise based so that it returns a promise.

Pros

• The simplest approach to make an HTTP Request.

Cons

• It is not promise based

Conclusion

We looked at the pros and cons of the most popular HTTP libraries.

I hope this article helped you to understand the basics of the different HTTP libraries available today. You can also find other demos of React.js Sample Projects here to start working on enterprise-level applications.

Let me know your thoughts over email demo.jsonworld@gmail.com. I would love to hear them and If you like this article, share it with your friends.

Thank You!