Testing an API or troubleshooting a web server that returns a 502 error shouldn’t require opening a browser or launching a heavy GUI application. Here are 8 terminal-based HTTP clients for Linux, from curl and HTTPie to xh, Hurl, and Posting, with installation commands and practical examples.
HTTP clients are tools that send requests to web servers and display the responses. Most Linux users first encounter them as a way to download files from the command line, but they’re just as useful for checking response headers, testing REST APIs, following redirects, and diagnosing errors from web servers and reverse proxies.
The challenge is choosing the right tool for the job. curl can handle almost any HTTP task, but its command-line options can get lengthy when working with JSON APIs. Tools like HTTPie offer a more readable syntax for API testing, while dedicated download tools are better suited to tasks such as resuming a 4 GB ISO download.