HttpClient provides powerful functionality with better syntax support for newer threading features, e.g. You should definitely dispose your web request objects properly.ĭon’t worry, you can still specify timeouts, just make sure you follow this workaround. Note: the using statements from both examples were omitted for brevity. That same request example is now as simple as: var client = new WebClient() But that “inefficiency” comes with huge benefits: it requires less code, is easier to use, and you’re less likely to make a mistake when using it. Using WebClient is potentially slower (on the order of a few milliseconds) than using HttpWebRequest directly.

WebClient is a higher-level abstraction built on top of HttpWebRequest to simplify the most common tasks. Only use HttpWebRequest if you require the additional low-level control that it offers. The number of ways you can make a mistake with HttpWebRequest is truly astounding. StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(stream) MemoryStream stream = response.GetResponseStream() WebResponse response = http.GetResponse() HttpWebRequest http = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create('') In order to make a simple GET you need at least five lines of code we will see that WebClient uses just two lines.

However, with great power comes great complexity. For instance, while you’re downloading a big file from a sluggish API server, your application’s UI will remain responsive.

Another great thing is that HttpWebRequest class does not block the user interface thread. Using HttpWebRequest gives you control over every aspect of the request/response object, like timeouts, cookies, headers, protocols. NET creators originally developed to consume HTTP requests. In the beginning there was… HttpWebRequest To worsen your analysis paralysis the open-source community created yet another library called RestSharp. NET framework offers you three different classes to consume REST APIs: HttpWebRequest, WebClient, HttpClient. Instead of GetObject() and SetObject() methods you have a single url api/object that may receive either an HTTP GET request or an HTTP POST request.

a REST API uses HTTP to exchange JSON-encoded data.

a WSDL API uses SOAP to exchange XML-encoded data.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about you’re like me a week ago. Just when I was starting to get used to call WebServices through WSDL – like I showed here and here – I had to call a RESTful API.

Webrequest vs httpclient