If you've ever worked on a server, especially one without a graphical interface, you've probably needed to download a file from the internet. When you're in the command line, two tools are almost always mentioned for this job: curl and wget.

At first glance, they seem to do the same thing. But they actually have different philosophies and are designed for very different tasks. Neither one is "better" than the other; they just excel in different areas.

Let's break down the curl vs. wget debate so you know which one to reach for.

What is wget?

Wget (from the GNU Project) is a straightforward, non-interactive command-line utility whose main purpose is downloading files. Think of it as a simple downloader.

Its name literally comes from "World Wide Web" and "get." It's built to be simple and reliable for one job: retrieving content.

Its biggest feature is the ability to download files recursively. This means you can point wget at a website, and it can mirror the entire site (or a specific directory) by following links and downloading all the pages, images, and other assets. It's also very good at handling flaky connections; if a download is interrupted, wget can often resume where it left off.

By default, wget saves files directly to your current directory with their original names. For a deeper dive into all its commands, you can read our full guide on what Wget is and how to use it.

What is curl?

curl is much more than just a downloader; it's a tool for transferring data using various protocols. It's often called the "Swiss Army knife" for data transfer.

The curl command you type is just the command-line interface for libcurl, a free client-side URL transfer library. This library is used inside thousands of applications, from cars and TVs to popular software like PHP and Git, to handle URL-based communication.

While curl can download files, it also supports a huge range of protocols beyond just HTTP and HTTPS, including FTP, SFTP, LDAP, and SMB. It's also designed to be interactive in a different way. You can use it to send data (like with HTTP POST or PUT requests), manage cookies, and set custom HTTP headers.

This makes curl the standard tool for testing APIs from the command line. By default, curl outputs everything to standard output (stdout), which just means it prints the content directly to your terminal screen. We cover its many options in our detailed guide to curl.

The main differences at a glance

So, the core difference is simplicity vs. versatility.

  • wget is a simple tool designed to download files.
  • curl is a complex tool designed to transfer data (which includes downloading, but also uploading, testing, and more).

This difference shows in how they operate:

  • Recursive downloads: wget is the king of recursive downloads. It can mirror an entire website with a single command. curl can't do this; it's not what it was built for.
  • Default output: wget saves to a file by default. curl prints to the screen (stdout) by default. This makes curl great for piping data to other commands (like grep or jq) without creating temporary files.
  • Protocols: curl supports a much wider range of protocols for both sending and receiving data.
  • Library: curl is powered by libcurl, a widely used library. wget is a standalone application.

How curl and wget compare (common examples)

Looking at a few common tasks is the easiest way to see the differences in action. For a complete list of commands, check out our specific guides for Wget and curl.

Basic download

This is the simplest use case. Let's download a test file.

With wget, it's simple. It automatically saves the file as 100MB.bin.

wget http://ovh.net/files/100MB.bin

With curl, the default action is to print the file (a bad idea for a 100MB binary file) to your screen. To make it behave like wget, you have two options.

Use the -O (uppercase O) flag to save the file with its original name:

curl -O http://ovh.net/files/100MB.bin

Or, use the -o (lowercase o) flag to specify your own filename:

curl -o my-test-file.bin http://ovh.net/files/100MB.bin

Recursive download (wget's specialty)

This is where wget really shines. If you want to download all the pages and assets from a simple website, you can use the recursive (-r) flag. The no-parent (-np) flag prevents it from going "up" the directory tree.

# This will try to mirror the site, following links
wget -r -np https://example.com

You can't do this with curl.

Testing an API (curl's specialty)

This is curl's home turf. Let's say you want to send JSON data to an API using a POST request.

With curl, you use -X POST to set the method, -H to add a Content-Type header, and -d to send your data.

curl -X POST \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"username":"test", "message":"hello"}' \
  https://api.example.com/v1/post

Trying to do this with wget is very difficult and not recommended. It's just not the right tool for the job.

Piping output (curl's specialty)

Because curl outputs to stdout, you can easily use it with other tools. For example, you can download a webpage and immediately search for a word in it.

# Downloads the page and pipes it to 'grep' to search for "Linux"
curl -s https://xtom.com/blog/ | grep "Linux"

The -s flag just silences the progress meter.

Which tool should you choose?

It's simple:

  • Use wget when: You need to download files, especially if you need to download many files, mirror a whole website, or need a download to resume automatically if it fails.
  • Use curl when: You need to test an API, send data (POST, PUT), set custom headers, or use the output in a script by piping it to another command.

Most Linux systems come with both installed, so you don't have to choose just one. They are two different tools for two different jobs, and both belong in your command-line toolkit.

Frequently asked questions about curl and Wget

Is curl better than Wget?

No, they are just different. wget is a specialized tool for downloading files recursively and reliably. curl is a versatile tool for transferring data, which includes API testing and downloading.

Can curl download files recursively?

Not in the same way wget can. curl is designed to operate on a single URL at a time. While you could write a script using curl to parse links and download them, wget provides this functionality out of the box with its -r flag.

Why does curl print to the screen?

curl prints to standard output (stdout) by default. This is a common practice in the Unix/Linux world, as it allows you to "pipe" the output of one command directly into the input of another. For example, you can pipe curl's output to grep to search for text or to jq to parse JSON.

Is Wget or curl installed by default?

This depends on the Linux distribution. Most "full" desktop and server distributions (like Ubuntu, Debian, and CentOS) come with both wget and curl. Minimal container images (like Alpine) might require you to install them manually.

Conclusion

For Linux users, especially sysadmins and developers, both curl and wget are tools that make life easier.

wget is your dependable, simple downloader. curl is your versatile data-transfer expert. Knowing when to use each one will save you a lot of time, whether you're just grabbing a config file or debugging a complex API.

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