# API Technology - Basic Auth

**Author:** kinlane  
**Canonical:** https://apievangelist.com/2011/02/13/api-technologybasic-auth/

Basic Auth is a way for a web browser or application to provide credentials in the form of a username and password.

Because Basic Auth is integrated into [HTTP protocol](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypertext_Transfer_Protocol "Hypertext Transfer Protocol") it is the easiest way for users to authenticate with a [RESTful API](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Representational_State_Transfer "Representational State Transfer").

Basic Auth is easily integrated, however if [SSL](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transport_Layer_Security "Transport Layer Security") is not used, the username and password are passed in plain text and can be easily intercepted on the open Internet.

OAuth is a much better choice for RESTful API authentication, but Basic Auth is perfectly suited for APIs that are intended for a wider audience and do not give access to sensitive information.

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