Java HttpClient
Ranked 9 of 11 HTTP client libraries by recommenders
Built-in Java HTTP client with a clean builder API, so projects need no extra dependency. One critic says the newest client has blatant problems and suggests wrapping it with Methanol.
Built-in Java HTTP client with a clean builder API, so projects need no extra dependency. One critic says the newest client has blatant problems and suggests wrapping it with Methanol.
8 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 6
- criticize it
- 2
- approval share
- 75%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 6 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, 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
Clean builder-pattern API
“It's a clean builder pattern, the response is returned directly from send.”
Comment from 25 Mar 2026 in “I Forked Httpx” “since Java 11 there is the HttpClient with a convenient API”
Comment from 1 Apr 2026 in “Axios Compromised on NPM – Malicious Versions Drop Remote Access Trojan” “Java's JDK has a nice, modern HTTP Client”
Comment from 25 Mar 2026 in “I Forked Httpx” Built into the JDK
“It's standard lib only got better since then (e.g. `HttpClient`).”
Comment from 14 May 2026 in “If AI Writes Your Code, Why Use Python?” “Java's JDK has a nice, modern HTTP Client”
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 | — | — |
| libcurl | 10 | 2 | 83% | 7 | — | Approved |
| Java HttpClientThis page | 6 | 2 | 75% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
7 of the 8 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“the latest newly added HTTP client has some blatant problems that require you to go with a wrapper like Methanol”
“It's standard lib only got better since then (e.g. `HttpClient`).”
“since Java 11 there is the HttpClient with a convenient API”
“all the OOP stuff that isn't providing any benefit and isn't really modeling real-world-ish objects”
“all the OOP stuff that isn't providing any benefit”
“It's a clean builder pattern, the response is returned directly from send.”
“Java's JDK has a nice, modern HTTP Client”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.