Ruby HTTP Gems: A Developer’s Guide

When working with web services or APIs in Ruby, the ability to perform HTTP operations well is essential. The gem you choose will depend on whether you want to do web scraping or add simple integrations.

We’ll explain how to choose and use a gem, what they are, why they beat using the standard library, the leading options, and how to pick the right one for your application.

What Is an HTTP Gem?

An HTTP gem is a Ruby library that wraps the lower-level HTTP protocol operations, like opening sockets, sending headers, and interpreting responses, to make it easier for developers to build solutions.

Instead of manually handling the intricacies of the HTTP protocol natively, a Ruby gem abstracts complexity away and gives you a more straightforward API. When you want to perform HTTP requests, like a GET request or a POST request, such gems provide methods and convenience features to streamline the process.

They also handle request construction, response parsing, header management, and error handling in a more developer-friendly way.

By using a gem rather than raw APIs, you can focus on the logic of your app instead of the plumbing of making requests and decoding the response body. The gems give you higher-level features such as simple method chaining systems and built-in JSON support, so you spend less time wrestling with the socket layer.

Why Use an HTTP Gem Instead of Net::HTTP?

Ruby includes the standard library class Net::HTTP for making HTTP calls. It works, but many Ruby developers prefer using a purpose-built HTTP client gem. Here’s why:

• The syntax around Net::HTTP is more verbose and less intuitive compared to the cleaner DSLs that gems provide. For instance, you often need to craft request objects manually, manage SSL settings with use_ssl, handle redirects, and parse response bodies explicitly. The gem hides these details.
• Gems often offer more developer-friendly handling of headers, status codes, JSON payloads, and response body parsing. They integrate with everyday use cases like REST APIs much more cleanly.
• Many gems offer a simple method chaining system, which Net::HTTP lacks or only supports in an ad-hoc way.
• Error handling and exceptions can be wrapped in more meaningful types in gems, whereas Net::HTTP leaves you to manage many low-level scenarios.
• Some gems support performance features like persistent connections, streaming, or built-in JSON parsing. While you can build these features on top of Net::HTTP, they would require extra effort.

In short, while Net::HTTP is serviceable and part of the standard library, when you are building serious integrations with APIs or need frequent HTTP requests, using one of the best Ruby HTTP clients gives you the same ease of use as Python’s Requests: more productivity, readability, and less boilerplate.

Popular HTTP Gems for Ruby

We’ll compare some of the best Ruby HTTP clients. For each, we’ll provide a short description, code snippets for GET requests, POST requests, and header/JSON use, and a note about when each is best used.

HTTParty

It’s a very popular Ruby HTTP client gem that offers a friendly syntax and integrates easily with API access patterns. Here’s an example code snippet using HTTParty:

require 'httparty'
require 'json'

# GET request
response = HTTParty.get('https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/users', headers: { 'Accept' => 'application/json' })
puts response.body

# POST requests
options = {
  body: { title: 'My Item', value: 42 }.to_json,
  headers: { 'Content-Type' => 'application/json', 'Accept' => 'application/json' }
}
response = HTTParty.post('https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/users', options)
puts response.body

It’s best used for quick API calls, simple integrations, prototypes, or when you want minimal code. If you want Ruby HTTP clients that work out of the box with minimal configuration, HTTParty is a go-to option.

For production code, always add appropriate error handling. Each gem has its own exception types and error handling patterns, so here’s an HTTParty example:

begin
  response = HTTParty.get('https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/users')
  puts response.body if response.success?
rescue StandardError => e
  puts "Request failed: #{e.message}"
end

RestClient

RestClient is a lightweight Ruby HTTP and REST client, inspired by frameworks like Sinatra, offering methods such as GET requests, POST requests, PUT, and DELETE. Here’s an example code using RestClient:

require 'rest-client'
require 'json'

# GET
response = RestClient.get 'https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/users', { 'Accept' => 'application/json' }
puts response.body

# POST
payload = { title: 'New', description: 'Something' }
response = RestClient.post 'https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/users', payload.to_json, { content_type: :json, accept: :json }
puts response.body

Note that RestClient also uses the ffi gem, so you’ll need to install it.

It’s best used for straightforward REST-style APIs, where you mostly perform GET requests and POST requests, not necessarily needing middleware or complex request flows.

Keep in mind that RestClient is currently in maintenance mode and sees infrequent updates. For new production applications, http.rb or Faraday are generally recommended.

Faraday

Faraday is a highly flexible Ruby HTTP client library. It abstracts multiple underlying adapters and supports middleware for request/response handling. Here’s an example code using Faraday:

require 'faraday'
require 'json'

# Connection setup - base URL without /users
conn = Faraday.new(url: 'https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com') do |f|
  f.adapter :net_http
end

# GET request - fetch all users
response = conn.get('/users')
puts "GET /users:"
puts JSON.pretty_generate(JSON.parse(response.body))
puts "\n" + "="*50 + "\n"

# POST request - create a new post
response = conn.post('/posts') do |req|
  req.headers['Content-Type'] = 'application/json'
  req.body = { 
    title: 'My New Post', 
    body: 'This is the content',
    userId: 1 
  }.to_json 
end
puts "POST /posts:"
puts JSON.pretty_generate(JSON.parse(response.body))

Faraday's main strength is adapter flexibility - it supports multiple HTTP backends (Net::HTTP, Typhoeus, Patron) that you can swap without changing your code.

It’s best for projects that need flexible architecture, custom middleware, the ability to swap adapters, or more advanced HTTP client features. If you plan to scale or have complex request flows, Faraday stands out.

http.rb

It’s a modern Ruby HTTP client that implements a pure-Ruby HTTP protocol, supports streaming, and has more advanced timeout/compression features. Here’s an example code using http.rb:

require 'http'

# GET request
response = HTTP.accept(:json).get('https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/users')
puts response.parse

# POST requests
response = HTTP.post('https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/users', json: { title: 'New' })
puts response.parse

Note: http.rb's .parse method automatically parses JSON responses, whereas other gems return the raw body, requiring JSON.parse.

It’s best used when performance, low memory overhead, or advanced features like streaming matter. http.rb is particularly good for high-throughput HTTP integration.

Excon

It’s a fast, minimal Ruby HTTP client library, often used for API clients, known for speed and simplicity. Here’s an example code using Excon:

require 'excon'
require 'json'

# GET request
response = Excon.get('https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/users')
puts response.body

# POST requests
response = Excon.post('https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/users',
  body: { title: 'New' }.to_json,
  headers: { 'Content-Type' => 'application/json' })
puts response.body

It’s best used for lightweight scenarios or where you care about raw speed and minimal features. Excon is good when you want a clean HTTP client with low abstraction. Additionally, one of its key differentiators is connection reuse – Excon truly excels there.

How to Pick the Right Gem

Choosing between these HTTP clients in the Ruby ecosystem involves considering your project’s size, complexity, performance constraints, and developer preferences.

Decision factors in a nutshell:

• Projects with heavy API interaction or frequent HTTP requests benefit from flexible and high-performance gems.
• Minimal configuration and simplicity work best with HTTParty or RestClient.
• Advanced features like custom middleware, retry logic, logging, or HTTP engine swapping are better supported in Faraday.
• Prioritizing memory efficiency, speed, large payload streaming, or persistent connections makes http.rb a strong choice.
• Quick and simple GET request or POST request use cases with a small footprint suit Excon.

Conclusion

An HTTP gem gives you a more developer-friendly HTTP client than using Net::HTTP directly. In the Ruby ecosystem, you have multiple good options, from HTTParty and RestClient to Faraday, http.rb, and Excon for more demanding needs.

The right Ruby HTTP client depends on how many HTTP requests you make, how complex your workflow is, how much performance matters, and whether you prefer a simple DSL or complete control.