If you‘ve done much Python programming that involves sending HTTP requests, you‘ve almost certainly used or come across the Requests library. Since being released in 2011, Kenneth Reitz‘s Requests Python package has become one of the most downloaded and depended upon libraries in the Python ecosystem. But if you‘re newer to Python, you may be wondering – is this Requests library still actively developed and maintained? Or is it deprecated by now in favor of newer alternatives?
Great questions! In this post, we‘ll take a closer look at the current status of the Python Requests library and explore why it remains a top choice for making HTTP requests from Python, even a decade after its initial release. We‘ll cover:
- What Requests is used for and why it‘s so popular
- The development and release history of Requests
- Requests‘ current status and maintenance
- Comparing Requests to alternative HTTP libraries
- Why Requests is still a great choice for most Python HTTP needs
What is Requests?
Put simply, Requests is a Python library that makes it incredibly easy to send HTTP requests using Python. It abstracts away many of the complexities of making requests and dealing with responses, and provides a simple, Pythonic API for accomplishing common tasks.
With Requests, you can easily:
- Send GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE and other HTTP requests
- Add headers, form data, JSON, files, and other content to your requests
- Inspect response data, headers, status codes, and other metadata
- Authentication, sessions, cookies, timeouts, proxies, and more
Requests aims to make all of this as simple as possible while still providing advanced functionality when you need it. This focus on simplicity and ease of use is a big part of why Requests is so beloved by the Python community.
Requests Development and Releases
The initial 0.1.0 release of Requests was made way back in 2011 by Kenneth Reitz. For years it was developed and maintained by Kenneth and saw regular releases with new features, bug fixes, and improvements.
Some key milestones in Requests‘ early development:
- 2011 – 0.1.0 initial release
- 2012 – 1.0.0 release
- 2014 – 2.0.0 release
- 2015 – 1.0 billion PyPI downloads
- 2016 – 2.11.0 release with HTTP/2 and chunked transfer encoding support
- 2017 – Kenneth Reitz steps down as maintainer
In 2017, after years of dedicated work growing and maintaining Requests, Kenneth transitioned maintenance of the project to the Python Software Foundation. This helped ensure Requests‘ continued development and maintenance even without Kenneth in the driver‘s seat.
Since then, Requests has continued to see active development and regular releases under the PSF‘s stewardship. The project has over 100 contributors and the development team reviews issues and merges pull requests nearly every day.
Is Requests Deprecated?
Let‘s cut straight to the big question at hand – is Requests deprecated here in 2024? The answer is a resounding NO!
Not only is Requests not deprecated, it‘s actively developed and remains one of the most popular Python packages in the world. There have been regular Requests releases every year since it‘s initial launch, including in 2022 and 2024.
As of March 2024, the latest Requests release is 2.28.2 which came out in January of this year. It includes several bug fixes and improvements. The developers continue to maintain a healthy commit and merge velocity.
Additionally, Requests is extremely widely used and depended on. The GitHub dependency graph shows over 1.8 million repositories depending on Requests. That makes it one of the most depended upon packages of any kind on GitHub. Those 1.8 million dependents are a major reason why Requests is very unlikely to be deprecated any time soon. With that many projects relying on it, the maintenance burden is worth it.
Requests Alternatives
Another way we can evaluate the status of Requests is to look at alternatives. Are there newer, better maintained libraries that might be deprecating it? Let‘s take a look at a couple of the major alternatives.
The biggest alternative is the httpx library. httpx provides a similar API to Requests, but supports asyncio and also works in a trio or curio event loop. It has some nice features, is actively maintained, and may be worth using if you need async capabilities.
However, httpx is not meant to replace or deprecate Requests for general, synchronous HTTP needs. The httpx docs even say "We believe that having a high-quality, fully-featured HTTP client as part of the Python standard library would be great! However, we don‘t believe that it makes sense for httpx to be that client." The Requests team agrees.
Another alternative is urllib3, a powerful HTTP client that is actually the backend engine for Requests! It‘s lower-level than Requests and great if you need more granular control. But again, it‘s not really meant to replace Requests for most users and use cases.
Why Use Requests Today?
At the end of the day, Requests remains a fantastic choice for most Python HTTP needs in 2024 and beyond. It‘s actively maintained, depended upon by millions of projects, and strikes a great balance between ease of use and advanced features.
I personally use Requests in most of my Python projects that need to make HTTP requests, as do the vast majority of my colleagues. I sleep easy at night knowing it has such a large community depending on it and the PSF maintaining it. Of course, I‘m not alone – the vast majority of Python developers continue to choose Requests every day.
So is it worth learning and using Requests here in 2024? Absolutely! It‘s a stable, mature, incredibly useful library that is most definitely not deprecated. Whether you‘re a seasoned Pythonista or just getting started with Python, Requests can make your life easier the next time you need to send an HTTP request.
Conclusion
Hopefully this article cleared up any doubts about the status of the Requests library and showed why it remains a top-notch choice for HTTP interactions in Python. It‘s not deprecated by any means – quite the opposite in fact!
Requests is a mature, stable, actively-developed library used by millions of projects and developers worldwide every day. While there are some excellent alternatives like httpx for specific use cases, Requests is still the go-to choice for most general HTTP needs.
So don‘t hesitate to use Requests in your next Python project. It‘s a pleasure to use, has a huge community, and is here to stay. Happy requesting!
