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When to use WebClient vs. HttpClient vs. HttpWebRequest

January 22, 2018

Via: InfoWorld

You have three different choices for consuming REST APIs when working in the .Net Framework: WebClient, HttpClient, and HttpWebRequest. In this post we will look at these three ways we can access REST APIs from within the managed environment, i.e., without resorting to third-party libraries. In the sections that follow I will illustrate these approaches with relevant code examples to help you gain a better understanding of the concepts.

In a nutshell, WebRequest—in its HTTP-specific implementation, HttpWebRequest—represents the original way to consume HTTP requests in .Net Framework. WebClient provides a simple but limited wrapper around HttpWebRequest. And HttpClient is the new and improved way of doing HTTP requests and posts, having arrived with .Net Framework 4.5.

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