curl / Docs / Tool / Comparison Table

Compare curl with other download tools

This comparison only involves entirely free and open source software.

Feature curl wget wget2 fetch lftp aria2 HTTrack HTTPie xh
.netrc yes yes yes yes yes yes no yes yes
Bandwidth Limiting yes yes yes no yes yes yes no no
Commercial support yes no no no no no no no no
DNS-over-HTTPS yes no no no no no no no no
FTP 3rd Party Transfer no no no no yes no no no no
FTP Active Mode yes yes yes yes yes yes no no no
FTP Connection Re-use yes no no yes yes yes no no no
FTP Kerberos yes no no no no no no no no
FTP Ranges yes no no no no no no no no
FTP Resume yes yes yes yes yes yes no no no
FTP Upload yes no no no yes no no no no
FTPS yes no no no yes no no no no
GOPHER yes no no no yes no no no no
GOPHERS yes no no no no no no no no
H2/H3 Happy Eyeballs yes no no no no no no no no
Happy Eyeballs yes no no no no no no no no
HSTS yes yes yes no no no no no no
HTTP alt-svc yes no no no no no no no no
HTTP brotli yes no yes no no no no no yes
HTTP Cookies yes yes yes no yes yes yes yes yes
HTTP Digest Auth yes yes yes yes no no no yes yes
HTTP etags yes no no no no no no no no
HTTP gzip yes no yes no no yes yes yes yes
HTTP Multipart POST yes no no no no no no yes yes
HTTP Negotiate Auth yes no no no no no no yes no
HTTP NTLM Auth yes yes yes no no no no yes no
HTTP Persistent Conns yes yes yes no yes yes no no no
HTTP POST yes yes yes no yes no no yes yes
HTTP POST Chunked yes no no no no no no no no
HTTP Proxy yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes
HTTP PUT yes no no no yes no no no yes
HTTP Ranges yes no no no no no no no no
HTTP Redirects yes yes yes yes no yes no yes yes
HTTP Resume yes yes yes yes yes yes no yes yes
HTTP time conditions yes yes yes no no no no no no
HTTP zstd yes no yes no no no no no no
HTTP/1.1 yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes
HTTP/2 ALPN yes no yes no no no no no yes
HTTP/2 h2c upgrade yes no yes no no no no no no
HTTP/2 to proxy yes no no no no no no no no
HTTP/3 yes no no no no no no no no
HTTPS yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes
HTTPS Proxy yes no no no no no no no yes
IDN hostnames yes yes yes no no no no yes no
IMAP yes no no no no no no no no
In development yes yes yes no no yes no yes yes
IPv6 yes yes yes yes yes yes* yes yes yes
LDAP yes no no no no no no no no
library / API yes no yes no no no no no no
Metalink no yes yes no no yes no no no
MQTT yes no no no no no no no no
Multilingual Messages no yes yes no yes yes no no no
Multiple URLs yes yes yes yes yes yes no no no
Parallel transfers yes no no no yes yes yes no no
POP3 yes no no no no no no no no
Recursive downloads no yes yes no yes no yes no no
Retry failed downloads yes yes yes yes yes yes yes no no
RTMP yes no no no no no no no no
RTSP yes no no no no no no no no
Same file multi connect no no yes no yes yes no no no
SCP yes no no no no no no no no
SFTP yes no no no yes yes no no no
SMB yes no no no no no no no no
SMTP yes no no no no no no no no
SOCKS4 yes no no no yes no no no no
SOCKS5 yes no no no yes no no yes no
SOCKS5 proxy resolve yes no no no no no no no no
TELNET yes no no no no no no no no
TFTP yes no no no no no no no no
Tiny Executable no no no yes no no no no no
TLS: BearSSL yes no no no no no no no no
TLS: Client certs yes yes yes no no no no no yes
TLS: GnuTLS yes yes yes no yes yes no yes* no
TLS: mbedTLS yes no no no no no no no no
TLS: OpenSSL yes yes no yes yes yes yes yes yes
TLS: rustls yes no no no no no no no yes
TLS: Schannel yes no no no no no no yes* no
TLS: Secure Transport yes no no no no no no yes* no
TLS: Session ID cache yes no yes no no no no no no
TLS: WolfSSL yes no yes no no no no no no
Unix domain socket yes no no no no no no no no
URL globbing/sequences yes yes yes no no yes no no no
Username/Password yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes
Windows Port yes yes yes no no yes yes yes* yes
WebSocket yes no no no no no no no no
License MIT GPL GPL BSD GPL GPL GPL BSD MIT
Version 8.3.0 1.21 1.99.2 4.7 3.5.0 1.8.3 3.43 3.2.2 0.18.0

The mentioned tools: wget, wget2, lftp, aria2, httrack, HTTPie, xh

'Fetch' is an integral part of the FreeBSD operating system.

* aria2 supports IPv6 only in HTTP(S) download

* HTTPie is written in Python + Requests and thus carry their portability and features

"In development" - releases or new things done to the project within the last couple of years.

Please file a bug report if this table is incorrect, or tell us other features we should compare!