httpx
Shares rank 4 of 11 HTTP client libraries by recommenders
Recommended as a clean, modern Python HTTP client with async and newer HTTP support; the most common caveat is slow maintainer response, with critics saying issues and PRs are ignored.
Recommended as a clean, modern Python HTTP client with async and newer HTTP support; the most common caveat is slow maintainer response, with critics saying issues and PRs are ignored.
32 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 10
- criticize it
- 22
- approval share
- 31%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 10 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 0.4 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 4 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Could become the default Python library
“the library is really nice and could have become the default HTTP library”
Comment from 25 Mar 2026 in “I Forked Httpx” “httpx has so much potential to be the default Python http library”
Comment from 25 Mar 2026 in “I Forked Httpx” Replaces other clients in projects
“we ended up replacing that particular client with it”
Comment from 14 May 2026 in “Reverting the incremental GC in Python 3.14 and 3.15” “The httpx maintainer closed off access to issues and discussions on the repo, has been ignoring PRs, and hasn't updated it in a half a year.”
Comment from 28 Aug 2026 in “Migrating to HTTPX2”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Maintainers ignore issues and PRs
“The httpx maintainer closed off access to issues and discussions on the repo, has been ignoring PRs, and hasn't updated it in a half a year.”
Comment from 28 Aug 2026 in “Migrating to HTTPX2” “I personally treat it as a supply chain risk, as there are no longer any way to report any bugs and security problems.”
Comment from 28 Feb 2026 in “Httpx closing down issues and discussions due to "skewed gender representation"” “The fix was ignored and there was never any release since November 2024.”
Comment from 25 Mar 2026 in “I Forked Httpx” - Comment from 28 Aug 2026 in “Migrating to HTTPX2”
Upcoming 1.0 brings breaking changes
“it can easily put your production project to suddenly break in a bad way without valid reason”
Comment from 25 Mar 2026 in “I Forked Httpx” “it's currently working towards a 1.0 release which will be full of breaking changes”
Comment from 28 Aug 2026 in “Migrating to HTTPX2” “currently working towards a 1.0 release which will be full of breaking changes”
Comment from 28 Aug 2026 in “Migrating to HTTPX2” - Comment from 28 Aug 2026 in “Migrating to HTTPX2”
Thread-safety and performance problems
“httpx (great, but currently struggles in high throughput scenarii for years with no visible solution merged so far).”
Comment from 13 Mar 2026 in “Show HN: I forked Python's Requests to add HTTP/3, async, and multiplexing” “thread-safety issues (httpx claims to be thread-safe but we hit race conditions in production)”
Comment from 25 Mar 2026 in “I Forked Httpx” “their connection pooling etc implementations are completely broken”
Comment from 14 Dec 2025 in “Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (December 2025)” Slower than aiohttp or niquests
“from your benchmarks it seems like I should've went with aiohttp for faster async”
Comment from 14 Dec 2025 in “Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (December 2025)” “niquests easily beat aiohttp just using 10 conn and crush httpx”
Comment from 25 Mar 2026 in “I Forked Httpx”
Other HTTP client libraries people recommend
The four most recommended other HTTP client libraries, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Requests (Python library) | 23 | 7 | 77% | 8 | — | Approved |
| Axios | 21 | 37 | 36% | 5 | — | — |
| Go net/http | 12 | 7 | 63% | 4 | — | — |
| httpxThis page | 10 | 22 | 31% | 4 | — | — |
| libcurl | 10 | 2 | 83% | 7 | — | Approved |
What people said
36 of the 39 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“isn't really maintained anymore”
“the httpx API is much cleaner and more composable”
“harmful decisions of the maintainer that are loaded foot guns”
“Biggest problem with httpx I see is authors sanity”
“closing repos? excluding maintainers? committing only on private repos?”
“I always wonder why use that especially when niquests exists?”
“ported some code from httpx -> niquests”
“supported newer HTTP versions and both async and non-async”
“how much worse HTTPX performs versus Aiohttp”
“There is no reason to encourage or support this type of behavior in a project.”
“Unfortunately that 1.0 work is happening in a private repository.”
“The Pydantic httpx fork has taken its place.”
“The httpx maintainer closed off access to issues and discussions on the repo, has been ignoring PRs, and hasn't updated it in a half a year.”
“it has an obnoxious and toxic maintainer”
“currently working towards a 1.0 release which will be full of breaking changes”
“it's currently working towards a 1.0 release which will be full of breaking changes”
“we ended up replacing that particular client with it”
“If you are using "httpx", it's likely caused by a reference cycle.”
“thread-safety issues (httpx claims to be thread-safe but we hit race conditions in production)”
“the library is really nice and could have become the default HTTP library”
“I chose httpx after deliberating a bit.”
“That’s the main reason to use httpx for me at least”
“The fix was ignored and there was never any release since November 2024.”
“third party stuff like requests or httpx, which aren't always well maintained”
“niquests easily beat aiohttp just using 10 conn and crush httpx”
“it can easily put your production project to suddenly break in a bad way without valid reason”
“httpx has so much potential to be the default Python http library”
“They're all great on their own”
“httpx (great, but currently struggles in high throughput scenarii for years with no visible solution merged so far).”
“Not only is httpx an actual supply chain risk now”
“I personally treat it as a supply chain risk, as there are no longer any way to report any bugs and security problems.”
“httpx is in a tough situation too, risking to take the same path forward as Requests did”
“Eg its connection pooling implementation is not great at all”
“from your benchmarks it seems like I should've went with aiohttp for faster async”
“their connection pooling etc implementations are completely broken”
“Started after getting too annoyed with all the issues httpx has.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.