HTTP1.1 vs HTTP2: Key Differences Explained

This page compares HTTP1.1 vs HTTP2 and mentions the difference between HTTP1.1 and HTTP2 protocol types.

HTTP1.1 Protocol

It was published in 1997, providing improvements over the original HTTP protocol.

It’s a World Wide Web (WWW) protocol running on top of the TCP/IP protocol stack.

HTTP1.1 uses text-based commands for communication between the client and web server.

It offers faster web page loading compared to HTTP and reduces web traffic.

Features of HTTP/1.1 protocol:

• Single request/response at a time. Browsers use multiple connections to achieve concurrent requests and responses.
• Requests and responses are text-based.
• Requires a host header.
• Condition caching headers.
• Digest authentication and proxy authentication.
• Chunked transfer encoding.
• Connection header.
• Enhanced compression support.

HTTP2 Protocol

It was published in Feb. 2015, offering many improvements over HTTP/1.1. HTTP2 uses binary data for communication between the client and web server. It offers faster web page loading compared to HTTP/1.1.

Key features differentiating HTTP1.1 and HTTP2 protocols:

• Multiplexing: Multiple requests and responses are sent simultaneously over a single connection.
• Server Push: The server proactively pushes resources to the client, reducing the number of round trips and improving the performance of loading web pages faster.
• Supports header compression, which reduces the amount of data transmitted.
• Supports prioritization of requests and responses, allowing critical resources to be loaded faster.
• Uses a binary format, which is more efficient than the text-based format used in HTTP1.1.
• Supports a flow control mechanism to ensure the client doesn’t receive more data than it can handle, and the server doesn’t send more than the client’s capacity.
• Supports HTTPS encryption protocol.

Difference between HTTP1.1 and HTTP2

The following table highlights the key differences between HTTP1.1 and HTTP2.

Conclusion

​HTTP/2 offers significant enhancements over HTTP/1.1, including a binary protocol, multiplexing, header compression, and server push, leading to improved performance and efficiency in web communications.