How can I download HTML source in C#

Solution 1:

You can download files with the WebClient class:

using System.Net;

using (WebClient client = new WebClient ()) // WebClient class inherits IDisposable
{
    client.DownloadFile("http://yoursite.com/page.html", @"C:\localfile.html");

    // Or you can get the file content without saving it
    string htmlCode = client.DownloadString("http://yoursite.com/page.html");
}

Solution 2:

Basically:

using System.Net;
using System.Net.Http;  // in LINQPad, also add a reference to System.Net.Http.dll

WebRequest req = HttpWebRequest.Create("http://google.com");
req.Method = "GET";

string source;
using (StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(req.GetResponse().GetResponseStream()))
{
    source = reader.ReadToEnd();
}

Console.WriteLine(source);

Solution 3:

The newest, most recent, up to date answer
This post is really old (it's 7 years old when I answered it), so no one of the other answers used the new and recommended way, which is HttpClient class.

HttpClient is considered the new API and it should replace the old ones (WebClient and WebRequest)

string url = "page url";
HttpClient client = new HttpClient();
using (HttpResponseMessage response = client.GetAsync(url).Result)
{
   using (HttpContent content = response.Content)
   {
      string result = content.ReadAsStringAsync().Result;
   }
}

for more information about how to use the HttpClient class (especially in async cases), you can refer this question

NOTE 1: If you want to use async/await

string url = "page url";
HttpClient client = new HttpClient();   // actually only one object should be created by Application
using (HttpResponseMessage response = await client.GetAsync(url))
{
   using (HttpContent content = response.Content)
   {
      string result = await content.ReadAsStringAsync();
   }
}

NOTE 2: If use C# 8 features

string url = "page url";
HttpClient client = new HttpClient();
using HttpResponseMessage response = await client.GetAsync(url);
using HttpContent content = response.Content;
string result = await content.ReadAsStringAsync();

Solution 4:

You can get the HTML source with:

var html = new System.Net.WebClient().DownloadString(siteUrl)

Solution 5:

@cms way is the more recent, suggested in MS website, but I had a hard problem to solve, with both method posted here, now I post the solution for all!

problem: if you use an url like this: www.somesite.it/?p=1500 in some case you get an internal server error (500), although in web browser this www.somesite.it/?p=1500 perfectly work.

solution: you have to move out parameters, working code is:

using System.Net;
//...
using (WebClient client = new WebClient ()) 
{
    client.QueryString.Add("p", "1500"); //add parameters
    string htmlCode = client.DownloadString("www.somesite.it");
    //...
}

here official documentation