# curl_cffi

5 Hacker News commenters recommended curl_cffi and 0 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 4 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** A Python HTTP library that imitates real browser TLS fingerprints, which people use to build scrapers and test clients. Critics raise no recurring complaints.

## Why people recommend it

- Used for building web scrapers (2 comments): "this approach really helped me to write a solid API-based scraper (also using curl_cffi)" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47931685)) "you can do implement scraper using curl cffi, or playwright" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46711723))
- Spoofs Chrome TLS fingerprints accurately (2 comments): "accurately spoofs JA4 for chrome" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49695708)) "I've used for TLS fingerprinting" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47932178))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Requests (Python library)](https://hackerapproved.com/p/requests.md): 23 recommend
- [Axios](https://hackerapproved.com/p/axios.md): 21 recommend
- [Go net/http](https://hackerapproved.com/p/go-net-http.md): 12 recommend
- [libcurl](https://hackerapproved.com/p/libcurl.md): 10 recommend
- [httpx](https://hackerapproved.com/p/httpx.md): 10 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "curl_cffi", https://hackerapproved.com/p/curl-cffi/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).