Axios

Axios is the HTTP client that became the de facto standard because it just works everywhere. You get a clean promise-based API for making requests in both browser and Node.js, with built-in interceptors for adding auth tokens or handling retries, and error handling that actually distinguishes between network failures and server errors. The real win is the interceptor pattern, it makes cross-cutting concerns like authentication, logging, and error handling trivial to implement once and forget about. If you're working with REST APIs or need reliable HTTP requests with progress tracking, timeouts, and automatic JSON transforms, this is the obvious choice.