← back home · # compare
Where recurl fits next to what you use.
Two grounded comparisons. We skip Playwright and Selenium on purpose — they are a different category, and recurl uses a headless browser as a fallback layer, not as a competitor. Each page is a full feature-by-feature table.
recurl vs bare curl
→The baseline HTTP client
recurl runs real curl on the happy path and only escalates on a block. Same flags, same exit codes — strictly more powerful with no added cost when curl already worked.
recurl vs curl-impersonate
→Patched curl with browser TLS fingerprints
The closest open-source competitor — recurl wraps it. We add automatic block detection, JS preflight escalation, a warm daemon, and a fallback to plain curl on success.
# comparing on ergonomics? See the FAQ for recurl vs curl-impersonate vs curl-cffi.