Differences between Curl and Wget

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Differences between Curl and Wget

Author：JIYIK Last Updated：2025/04/05 Views：

We usually think of pressing a download button when downloading a file from the Internet. However, you can download files from the terminal.

wgetThe and curlare two of the most commonly used tools. This tutorial will look at both and see how they differ.

curlThe ssh command allows you to send data from any server to your computer. wgetThe ssh command, on the other hand, downloads data as a file.

This is the most significant difference between the two commands.

Installing `wget`and`curl`

If you don't have wgetand installed curl, you can download it using the command below.

Install it on your system using the following command curl:

#Debian and Ubuntu Systems
sudo apt install curl
  
#Arch Linux
sudo pacman -S curl

Install it on your system using the following command wget:

#Debian and Ubuntu Systems
sudo apt install wget
 
#Arch Linux-based distros:
sudo pacman -S wget

`curl`Visit the website in Linux using

Let's google.comrun on curlto see what the output looks like.

$ curl google.com

Output:

<HTML><HEAD><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8">
<TITLE>301 Moved</TITLE></HEAD><BODY>
<H1>301 Moved</H1>
The document has moved
<A HREF="http://www.google.com/">here</A>.
</BODY></HTML>

As you can see, curlthe data from the terminal web page is displayed.

`wget`Visit the website in Linux using

Let's run it on some websites wgetto see the output.

$ wget python.org

Output:

--2022-01-19 21:50:34--  http://python.org/
Resolving python.org (python.org)... 138.197.63.241
Connecting to python.org (python.org)|138.197.63.241|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 301 Moved Permanently
Location: https://python.org/ [following]
--2022-01-19 21:50:37--  https://python.org/
Connecting to python.org (python.org)|138.197.63.241|:443... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 301 Moved Permanently
Location: https://www.python.org/ [following]
--2022-01-19 21:50:39--  https://www.python.org/
Resolving www.python.org (www.python.org)... 2a04:4e42:2d::223, 151.101.188.223
Connecting to www.python.org (www.python.org)|2a04:4e42:2d::223|:443... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 49799 (49K) [text/html]
Saving to: 'index.html'

index.html                          100%[=================================================================>]  48.63K  9.75KB/s    in 5.0s    

2022-01-19 21:50:46 (9.75 KB/s) - 'index.html' saved [49799/49799]

wgetBy default the results are saved to a file. In the output, there is also a progress bar.

Difference between `curl`and in Linux`wget`

curlBased on libcurl, it is a cross-platform library with a well-defined API that anyone can use. This distinction is critical because it creates a completely different mentality for dealing with things inside.

Libraries are also 简单more difficult to create than command-line tools.
curlSimilar to the standard Unix-catcommand in that it everything is a pipetransfers more data to stdoutand stdinreads more data from in a manner.
curlIt is primarily designed to perform a single data transfer. It only transfers the URL selected by the user, without any recursive download logic or HTMLparsers.

`curl`Compared with the command in Linux`wget`

curlThe main advantage of compared to is wgetits ability to recursively download even just all the content referenced from a remote resource, be it HTMLa web page or FTPa directory listing.
wgetcan be traced back to its predecessor, January 9, 1996, while curlcan only be traced back to November 11, 1996.
wgetReleased under the GNU General Public License version 3.
wgetIt is part of the GNU project, and all copyrights have been transferred to the Free Software Foundation. curlThe project is completely self-sufficient, with no organizational supervision, and almost all copyrights belong to Daniel.
wgetNo additional parameters are required to URLdownload a remote to a local file, but curl.

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