Http4s
A minimal, idiomatic Scala interface for HTTP (by http4s)
Akka HTTP
The Streaming-first HTTP server/module of Akka (by akka)

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Http4s | Akka HTTP | |
---|---|---|
24 | 6 | |
2,562 | 1,335 | |
0.0% | -0.1% | |
9.7 | 8.3 | |
13 days ago | 12 days ago | |
Scala | Scala | |
Apache License 2.0 | GNU General Public License v3.0 or later |
The number of mentions indicates the total number of mentions that we've tracked plus the number of user suggested alternatives.
Stars - the number of stars that a project has on GitHub. Growth - month over month growth in stars.
Activity is a relative number indicating how actively a project is being developed. Recent commits have higher weight than older ones.
For example, an activity of 9.0 indicates that a project is amongst the top 10% of the most actively developed projects that we are tracking.
Stars - the number of stars that a project has on GitHub. Growth - month over month growth in stars.
Activity is a relative number indicating how actively a project is being developed. Recent commits have higher weight than older ones.
For example, an activity of 9.0 indicates that a project is amongst the top 10% of the most actively developed projects that we are tracking.
Http4s
Posts with mentions or reviews of Http4s.
We have used some of these posts to build our list of alternatives
and similar projects. The last one was on 2023-06-02.
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How to get started?
http4s is a Typelevel project, and therefore falls into the "program in Scala as if it were Haskell" category. Many people find this off-putting, but honestly, I think with the resources listed above, this is the option at the best intersection of "mature" and "well-documented" available in Scala. The reason it's off-putting to many people is that Haskell-style pure FP isn't mainstream, so it isn't so much a matter of learning a new technology as it is a matter of learning a new paradigm, which necessarily means surfacing and unlearning things you already know, and perhaps confronting the uncomfortable feeling that things you thought were "fundamental," "have to be that way," aren't, and don't. I personally found this process liberating. But not everyone does.
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Server Stack Options for Scala
If you want a mature REST API library, I recommend http4s. Be aware, though, that it’s based on purely-functional programming with Cats, cats-effect, and fs2, so if you’re not familiar with them or aren’t prepared to commit to the paradigm, the learning curve may be daunting, seem pointless, or both.
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Sequential application of a constructor?
See also cats-effect and fs2. cats-effect gives you your IO Monad (and IOApp to run it with on supported platforms). fs2 is the ecosystem’s streaming library, which is much more pervasive in functional Scala than in Haskell. For example, http4s and Doobie are both based on fs2.
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Grasping the concepts and getting them down to earth
Most important/known: * https://http4s.org/ - an HTTP client/server * https://github.com/typelevel/fs2 - streaming * https://github.com/tpolecat/doobie - JDBC
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Relative popularity of programming languages on Hacker News
Scala devs are too busy wondering about free monads and F[Request[F] => Response[F]]. I am very pleased by http4s, Doobie, ScalaJS, and the whole ecosystem, really: https://http4s.org
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http4s as a replacement for akka-http?
In reality, your performance issues will not be http4s, but something else. That being said, there are improvements that http4s can and is making, and I'm quite excited about the future 1.0 release, which has some important and fundamental performance improvements already, like a a 125% performance improvement on the plaintext benchmark from https://github.com/http4s/http4s/pull/6091 - and finally, yes, akka-http does have very good performance, but you can also get good performance out of http4s.
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Is Scala a good choice for a data intensive web backend?
http4s for REST services.
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Scala became Typelevel/Zio only ecosystem?
This is a long list of misunderstandings I don’t have the patience to unpack. Instead, let me refer you to the links in my top comment in the thread, then suggest you learn at least http4s, a purely-functional web service library that’s been used in production for a decade or so now.
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Pleasant to use Scala libraries
The most popular nowadays are - I guess - akka-http and http4s. You can also use Play if you don't want to start from scratch but prefer a framework-based approach.
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Why do all frameworks use OOP? (php)
There are functional frameworks: https://http4s.org/
Akka HTTP
Posts with mentions or reviews of Akka HTTP.
We have used some of these posts to build our list of alternatives
and similar projects. The last one was on 2023-04-12.
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Akka-HTTP in android
Here I've posted my issue https://github.com/akka/akka-http/issues/4248
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http4s as a replacement for akka-http?
whats problem with akka-http? it seems to be still maintained - https://github.com/akka/akka-http/releases
- We Are Changing the License for Akka
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Best Scala framework / libraries out there ?
Akka HTTP, Cats, Quill, ninny, Monix Observable, mill.
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Any HTTPS web proxy library in Scala?
I'd second this. You might take a look at https://github.com/akka/akka-http/pull/2811
What are some alternatives?
When comparing Http4s and Akka HTTP you can also consider the following projects:
sttp - The Scala HTTP client you always wanted!
Spray - A suite of scala libraries for building and consuming RESTful web services on top of Akka: lightweight, asynchronous, non-blocking, actor-based, testable
Finch.io - Scala combinator library for building Finagle HTTP services
zio-http - A next-generation Scala framework for building scalable, correct, and efficient HTTP clients and servers
ZIO - ZIO — A type-safe, composable library for async and concurrent programming in Scala
scalaj-http - Simple scala wrapper for HttpURLConnection. OAuth included.
jefe - Manages installation, updating, downloading, launching, error reporting, and more for your application.
Dispatch - Scala wrapper for the Java AsyncHttpClient.

Nutrient - The #1 PDF SDK Library
Bad PDFs = bad UX. Slow load times, broken annotations, clunky UX frustrates users. Nutrient’s PDF SDKs gives seamless document experiences, fast rendering, annotations, real-time collaboration, 100+ features. Used by 10K+ devs, serving ~half a billion users worldwide. Explore the SDK for free.
nutrient.io
featured