itzmidinesh
Hi all,
I’m working on a Phoenix project where I need to make external HTTP requests and I’m trying to choose between Req and HTTPoison.
Req looks modern and composable, which is appealing. But, HTTPoison has been around for a long time and seems to be a battle-tested choice. I also noticed that HTTPoison has only one dependency which makes it attractive for keeping things lightweight.
I’d love to hear what the community prefers in 2025:
- Which library do you use and why?
- Any caveats, issues or limitations you’ve run into with either?
Thanks in advance!
Where Next?
Trending in Questions
Other Trending Topics
Latest Phoenix Threads
Latest on Elixir Forum
Sponsor Spotlight
Elixir, Erlang & messaging conferences from Code Sync. Next up: ElixirConf US (10–11 Sep) & Code BEAM Europe (21–22 Oct), Haarlem + online.
Categories:
Sub Categories:
Forums
Popular Tags
- #ecto
- #liveview
- #troubleshooting
- #learning-elixir
- #deployment
- #library
- #erlang
- #testing
- #genserver
- #mix
- #absinthe
- #remote-other
- #otp
- #plug
- #how-to-question
- #macros
- #postgres
- #elixirconf
- #channels
- #exunit
- #discussion
- #code-sync
- #javascript
- #podcasts
- #onsite
- #dialyzer
- #docker
- #authentication
- #umbrella
- #full-time-contract
- #podcasts-by-brainlid
- #ecto-query
- #blog-post
- #elixir-ls
- #ai
- #elixirconf-us
- #phoenix_html
- #iex
- #graphql
- #genstage
- #websockets
- #supervisor
- #advent-of-code
- #distillery
- #processes
- #api
- #forms
- #hex
- #security
- #metaprogramming
Our Sponsors
Build Elixir applications with speed and confidence.
Supporting innovation across the BEAM ecosystem.
We build reliable cloud platforms for business-critical systems.
Error tracking, logs, uptime, and Just Enough APM. Built for developers.
Elixir, Erlang & BEAM conferences from Code Sync - join us in 2026!
Practical resources that improve the lives of professional developers.
Enabling companies to succeed by building software people love.
The deployment platform built for Elixir: PaaS ease, VPS control.
The team behind Membrane, Popcorn, LiveDebugger. Available for hire.
Courses that'll move you from confusion to "Aha, now I get it!"
Showing Posts 1 to 5- Show Best Posts
- Show All (oldest first)
- Show All (newest first)
sabiwara
You might want to read this deep-dive on the topic:
It may have only one direct dependency (
:hackney), but:hackneyitself comes with several dependencies (mentioned in the article above too).adamu
Tesla is pretty underrated IMO, and it no longer “relies a bit too much on module-based configuration and meta-programming”, citied as downsides in that article.
itzmidinesh
Thank you for the article. I will go through it.
itzmidinesh
I’m curious why
HTTPoisonisn’t mentioned in this topic. Based on the download numbers on Hex, I assumed it was one of the most commonly used libraries. Am I missing something?EDIT: Never mind, I missed the part where it mentions HTTPoison.
garrison
I would go with Req for new projects at this point. It has a wonderful API and buy-in from the right people, so we know it will be used and maintained. The only downside is it’s still not a stable release, but it’s been pretty stable for the last year or so now so I don’t expect any substantial breaking changes or anything at this point. I’ve personally switched over (I was previously rolling my own on top of Finch) and the batteries-included API is very nice.
Also: Req is a pure-Elixir stack underneath (Finch, Mint). Which doesn’t really matter but it’s cool!