Difference between application/json and application/x-www-form-urlencoded
What They Are Used For:
-
application/json (Raw JSON)
- Used for APIs that expect structured data.
- Typically used in modern REST APIs and JavaScript frameworks like React, Vue, or Angular.
- Example: { "name": "John Doe", "email": "[email protected]", "subscribe": true }
- ✅ Best for complex data structures, arrays, and nested objects.
- ❌ Not compatible with traditional form submissions in HTML.
-
application/x-www-form-urlencoded
- Used when submitting form data from a traditional HTML
<form>.
- The data is URL-encoded, meaning special characters are replaced with
% encoding.
- Example: name=John+Doe&email=john%40example.com&subscribe=true
- ✅ Best for simple key-value pairs like login forms and simple API requests.
- ❌ Not ideal for complex JSON structures.
