diff --git a/.github/workflows/rust.yml b/.github/workflows/rust.yml
index 209fcae..9654f39 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/rust.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/rust.yml
@@ -26,15 +26,17 @@ jobs:
                   components: "rustfmt,clippy"
             - name: Check code formatting
               run: cargo fmt --all -- --check
-            - name: Check Clippy lints
-              run: cargo clippy --all-targets --all-features -- -D warnings
+            - name: Check Clippy lints (reqwest)
+              run: cargo clippy --all-targets --no-default-features --features use-serde,derive,reqwest-client -- -D warnings
+            - name: Check Clippy lints (surf)
+              run: cargo clippy --all-targets --no-default-features --features use-serde,derive,hyper-client -- -D warnings
 
     compile:
         name: Compile (${{ matrix.rust_release }}/${{ matrix.os }})
         runs-on: ${{ matrix.os }}
         strategy:
             matrix:
-                rust_release: [1.45, stable, nightly]
+                rust_release: [1.46, stable, nightly]
                 os: [ubuntu-latest, windows-latest, macOS-latest]
 
         steps:
@@ -50,7 +52,7 @@ jobs:
         runs-on: ubuntu-latest
         strategy:
             matrix:
-                http-backend: [curl-client, h1-client, h1-client-rustls, hyper-client]
+                http-backend: [curl-client, h1-client, h1-client-rustls, hyper-client, reqwest-client, reqwest-client-rustls]
         services:
             influxdb:
                 image: influxdb:1.8
@@ -122,7 +124,7 @@ jobs:
               cargo tarpaulin -v \
                 --target-dir target/tarpaulin \
                 --workspace \
-                --all-features \
+                --features use-serde,derive \
                 --exclude-files 'derive/*' \
                 --exclude-files 'target/*' \
                 --ignore-panics --ignore-tests \
diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 920eb58..dcfcc0b 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -7,6 +7,10 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 
 ## [Unreleased]
 
+### Added
+
+- reqwest-based http client (enabled by default)
+
 ## [0.4.0] - 2021-03-08
 
 ### Fixed
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 96b4aa1..908f17d 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -25,8 +25,8 @@
     <a href="https://www.rust-lang.org/en-US/">
         <img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/Made%20with-Rust-orange.svg" alt='Build with Rust' />
     </a>
-    <a href="https://blog.rust-lang.org/2020/03/12/Rust-1.45.html">
-        <img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/rustc-1.45+-yellow.svg" alt='Minimum Rust Version' />
+    <a href="https://blog.rust-lang.org/2020/08/27/Rust-1.46.0.html">
+        <img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/rustc-1.46+-yellow.svg" alt='Minimum Rust Version' />
     </a>
 </p>
 
@@ -62,8 +62,8 @@ use influxdb::{Client, Query, Timestamp};
 use influxdb::InfluxDbWriteable;
 use chrono::{DateTime, Utc};
 
-#[async_std::main]
-// or #[tokio::main] if you prefer
+#[tokio::main]
+// or #[async_std::main] if you prefer
 async fn main() {
     // Connect to db `test` on `http://localhost:8086`
     let client = Client::new("http://localhost:8086", "test");
@@ -101,11 +101,21 @@ in the repository.
 
 ## Choice of HTTP backend
 
-To communicate with InfluxDB, you can choose the HTTP backend to be used configuring the appropriate feature:
+To communicate with InfluxDB, you can choose the HTTP backend to be used configuring the appropriate feature. We recommend sticking with the default reqwest-based client, unless you really need async-std compatibility.
 
-- **[hyper](https://github.com/hyperium/hyper)** (used by default)
+- **[hyper](https://github.com/hyperium/hyper)** (through reqwest, used by default), with [rustls](https://github.com/ctz/rustls)
+  ```toml
+  influxdb = { version = "0.4.0", features = ["derive"] }
+  ```
+
+- **[hyper](https://github.com/hyperium/hyper)** (through reqwest), with native TLS (OpenSSL)
+  ```toml
+  influxdb = { version = "0.4.0", default-features = false, features = ["derive", "use-serde", "reqwest-client"] }
+  ```
+
+- **[hyper](https://github.com/hyperium/hyper)** (through surf), use this if you need tokio 0.2 compatibility
    ```toml
-   influxdb = { version = "0.4.0", features = ["derive"] }
+   influxdb = { version = "0.4.0", default-features = false, features = ["derive", "use-serde", "curl-client"] }
    ```
 - **[curl](https://github.com/alexcrichton/curl-rust)**, using [libcurl](https://curl.se/libcurl/)
    ```toml
diff --git a/README.tpl b/README.tpl
index 0647cd3..4814b9c 100644
--- a/README.tpl
+++ b/README.tpl
@@ -25,11 +25,11 @@
     <a href="https://www.rust-lang.org/en-US/">
         <img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/Made%20with-Rust-orange.svg" alt='Build with Rust' />
     </a>
-    <a href="https://blog.rust-lang.org/2020/03/12/Rust-1.45.html">
-        <img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/rustc-1.45+-yellow.svg" alt='Minimum Rust Version' />
+    <a href="https://blog.rust-lang.org/2020/08/27/Rust-1.46.0.html">
+        <img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/rustc-1.46+-yellow.svg" alt='Minimum Rust Version' />
     </a>
 </p>
 
 {{readme}}
 
-@ 2020 Gero Gerke and [contributors](https://github.com/Empty2k12/influxdb-rust/graphs/contributors).
\ No newline at end of file
+@ 2020 Gero Gerke and [contributors](https://github.com/Empty2k12/influxdb-rust/graphs/contributors).
diff --git a/influxdb/Cargo.toml b/influxdb/Cargo.toml
index 6ebbf5a..b493399 100644
--- a/influxdb/Cargo.toml
+++ b/influxdb/Cargo.toml
@@ -18,24 +18,30 @@ travis-ci = { repository = "Empty2k12/influxdb-rust", branch = "master" }
 [dependencies]
 chrono = { version = "0.4.11", features = ["serde"] }
 futures = "0.3.4"
-lazy_static = "1.4.0"
+http = "0.2.4"
 influxdb_derive = { version = "0.4.0", optional = true }
+lazy_static = "1.4.0"
 regex = "1.3.5"
-surf = { version = "2.2.0", default-features = false }
+reqwest = { version = "0.11.4", default-features = false, optional = true }
+surf = { version = "2.2.0", default-features = false, optional = true }
 serde = { version = "1.0.104", features = ["derive"], optional = true }
 serde_json = { version = "1.0.48", optional = true }
 thiserror = "1.0"
 
 [features]
-use-serde = ["serde", "serde_json"]
-curl-client = ["surf/curl-client"]
-h1-client = ["surf/h1-client"]
-h1-client-rustls = ["surf/h1-client-rustls"]
-hyper-client = ["surf/hyper-client"]
-wasm-client = ["surf/wasm-client"]
-default = ["use-serde", "hyper-client"]
+default = ["use-serde", "reqwest-client-rustls"]
 derive = ["influxdb_derive"]
+use-serde = ["serde", "serde_json"]
+
+# http clients
+curl-client = ["surf", "surf/curl-client"]
+h1-client = ["surf", "surf/h1-client"]
+h1-client-rustls = ["surf", "surf/h1-client-rustls"]
+hyper-client = ["surf", "surf/hyper-client"]
+reqwest-client = ["reqwest", "reqwest/native-tls-alpn"]
+reqwest-client-rustls = ["reqwest", "reqwest/rustls-tls-webpki-roots"]
+wasm-client = ["surf", "surf/wasm-client"]
 
 [dev-dependencies]
-async-std = { version = "1.6.5", features = ["attributes"] }
-tokio = { version =  "0.2.22", features = ["rt-threaded", "macros"] }
\ No newline at end of file
+async-std = { version = "1.6.5", features = ["attributes", "tokio02", "tokio1"] }
+tokio = { version = "1.7", features = ["macros", "rt-multi-thread"] }
diff --git a/influxdb/src/client/mod.rs b/influxdb/src/client/mod.rs
index 468b0ae..41ac198 100644
--- a/influxdb/src/client/mod.rs
+++ b/influxdb/src/client/mod.rs
@@ -16,7 +16,11 @@
 //! ```
 
 use futures::prelude::*;
-use surf::{self, Client as SurfClient, StatusCode};
+use http::StatusCode;
+#[cfg(feature = "reqwest")]
+use reqwest::{Client as HttpClient, Response as HttpResponse};
+#[cfg(feature = "surf")]
+use surf::{Client as HttpClient, Response as HttpResponse};
 
 use crate::query::QueryType;
 use crate::Error;
@@ -29,7 +33,7 @@ use std::sync::Arc;
 pub struct Client {
     pub(crate) url: Arc<String>,
     pub(crate) parameters: Arc<HashMap<&'static str, String>>,
-    pub(crate) client: SurfClient,
+    pub(crate) client: HttpClient,
 }
 
 impl Client {
@@ -57,7 +61,7 @@ impl Client {
         Client {
             url: Arc::new(url.into()),
             parameters: Arc::new(parameters),
-            client: SurfClient::new(),
+            client: HttpClient::new(),
         }
     }
 
@@ -112,10 +116,25 @@ impl Client {
                 error: format!("{}", err),
             })?;
 
-        let build = res.header("X-Influxdb-Build").unwrap().as_str();
-        let version = res.header("X-Influxdb-Version").unwrap().as_str();
+        const BUILD_HEADER: &str = "X-Influxdb-Build";
+        const VERSION_HEADER: &str = "X-Influxdb-Version";
 
-        Ok((build.to_owned(), version.to_owned()))
+        #[cfg(feature = "reqwest")]
+        let (build, version) = {
+            let hdrs = res.headers();
+            (
+                hdrs.get(BUILD_HEADER).and_then(|value| value.to_str().ok()),
+                hdrs.get(VERSION_HEADER)
+                    .and_then(|value| value.to_str().ok()),
+            )
+        };
+
+        #[cfg(feature = "surf")]
+        let build = res.header(BUILD_HEADER).map(|value| value.as_str());
+        #[cfg(feature = "surf")]
+        let version = res.header(VERSION_HEADER).map(|value| value.as_str());
+
+        Ok((build.unwrap().to_owned(), version.unwrap().to_owned()))
     }
 
     /// Sends a [`ReadQuery`](crate::ReadQuery) or [`WriteQuery`](crate::WriteQuery) to the InfluxDB Server.
@@ -184,32 +203,31 @@ impl Client {
 
                 self.client.post(url).body(query.get()).query(&parameters)
             }
-        }
-        .map_err(|err| Error::UrlConstructionError {
+        };
+
+        #[cfg(feature = "surf")]
+        let request_builder = request_builder.map_err(|err| Error::UrlConstructionError {
             error: err.to_string(),
         })?;
 
-        let request = request_builder.build();
-        let mut res = self
-            .client
-            .send(request)
+        let res = request_builder
+            .send()
             .map_err(|err| Error::ConnectionError {
                 error: err.to_string(),
             })
             .await?;
+        check_status(&res)?;
 
-        match res.status() {
-            StatusCode::Unauthorized => return Err(Error::AuthorizationError),
-            StatusCode::Forbidden => return Err(Error::AuthenticationError),
-            _ => {}
-        }
+        #[cfg(feature = "reqwest")]
+        let body = res.text();
+        #[cfg(feature = "surf")]
+        let mut res = res;
+        #[cfg(feature = "surf")]
+        let body = res.body_string();
 
-        let s = res
-            .body_string()
-            .await
-            .map_err(|_| Error::DeserializationError {
-                error: "response could not be converted to UTF-8".to_string(),
-            })?;
+        let s = body.await.map_err(|_| Error::DeserializationError {
+            error: "response could not be converted to UTF-8".to_string(),
+        })?;
 
         // todo: improve error parsing without serde
         if s.contains("\"error\"") {
@@ -222,6 +240,17 @@ impl Client {
     }
 }
 
+pub(crate) fn check_status(res: &HttpResponse) -> Result<(), Error> {
+    let status = res.status();
+    if status == StatusCode::UNAUTHORIZED.as_u16() {
+        Err(Error::AuthorizationError)
+    } else if status == StatusCode::FORBIDDEN.as_u16() {
+        Err(Error::AuthenticationError)
+    } else {
+        Ok(())
+    }
+}
+
 #[cfg(test)]
 mod tests {
     use super::Client;
diff --git a/influxdb/src/integrations/serde_integration/mod.rs b/influxdb/src/integrations/serde_integration/mod.rs
index 3a734af..e0b6508 100644
--- a/influxdb/src/integrations/serde_integration/mod.rs
+++ b/influxdb/src/integrations/serde_integration/mod.rs
@@ -48,11 +48,9 @@
 
 mod de;
 
-use surf::StatusCode;
-
 use serde::{de::DeserializeOwned, Deserialize};
 
-use crate::{Client, Error, Query, ReadQuery};
+use crate::{client::check_status, Client, Error, Query, ReadQuery};
 
 #[derive(Deserialize)]
 #[doc(hidden)]
@@ -143,30 +141,29 @@ impl Client {
         let url = &format!("{}/query", &self.url);
         let mut parameters = self.parameters.as_ref().clone();
         parameters.insert("q", read_query);
-        let request = self
-            .client
-            .get(url)
-            .query(&parameters)
-            .map_err(|err| Error::UrlConstructionError {
-                error: err.to_string(),
-            })?
-            .build();
+        let request_builder = self.client.get(url).query(&parameters);
+
+        #[cfg(feature = "surf")]
+        let request_builder = request_builder.map_err(|err| Error::UrlConstructionError {
+            error: err.to_string(),
+        })?;
 
-        let mut res = self
-            .client
-            .send(request)
+        let res = request_builder
+            .send()
             .await
             .map_err(|err| Error::ConnectionError {
                 error: err.to_string(),
             })?;
+        check_status(&res)?;
 
-        match res.status() {
-            StatusCode::Unauthorized => return Err(Error::AuthorizationError),
-            StatusCode::Forbidden => return Err(Error::AuthenticationError),
-            _ => {}
-        }
+        #[cfg(feature = "reqwest")]
+        let body = res.bytes();
+        #[cfg(feature = "surf")]
+        let mut res = res;
+        #[cfg(feature = "surf")]
+        let body = res.body_bytes();
 
-        let body = res.body_bytes().await.map_err(|err| Error::ProtocolError {
+        let body = body.await.map_err(|err| Error::ProtocolError {
             error: err.to_string(),
         })?;
 
diff --git a/influxdb/src/lib.rs b/influxdb/src/lib.rs
index 117f07f..bfd207d 100644
--- a/influxdb/src/lib.rs
+++ b/influxdb/src/lib.rs
@@ -30,8 +30,8 @@
 //! use influxdb::InfluxDbWriteable;
 //! use chrono::{DateTime, Utc};
 //!
-//! #[async_std::main]
-//! // or #[tokio::main] if you prefer
+//! #[tokio::main]
+//! // or #[async_std::main] if you prefer
 //! async fn main() {
 //!     // Connect to db `test` on `http://localhost:8086`
 //!     let client = Client::new("http://localhost:8086", "test");
@@ -69,11 +69,21 @@
 //!
 //! # Choice of HTTP backend
 //!
-//! To communicate with InfluxDB, you can choose the HTTP backend to be used configuring the appropriate feature:
+//! To communicate with InfluxDB, you can choose the HTTP backend to be used configuring the appropriate feature. We recommend sticking with the default reqwest-based client, unless you really need async-std compatibility.
 //!
-//! - **[hyper](https://github.com/hyperium/hyper)** (used by default)
+//! - **[hyper](https://github.com/hyperium/hyper)** (through reqwest, used by default), with [rustls](https://github.com/ctz/rustls)
+//!   ```toml
+//!   influxdb = { version = "0.4.0", features = ["derive"] }
+//!   ```
+//!
+//! - **[hyper](https://github.com/hyperium/hyper)** (through reqwest), with native TLS (OpenSSL)
+//!   ```toml
+//!   influxdb = { version = "0.4.0", default-features = false, features = ["derive", "use-serde", "reqwest-client"] }
+//!   ```
+//!
+//! - **[hyper](https://github.com/hyperium/hyper)** (through surf), use this if you need tokio 0.2 compatibility
 //!    ```toml
-//!    influxdb = { version = "0.4.0", features = ["derive"] }
+//!    influxdb = { version = "0.4.0", default-features = false, features = ["derive", "use-serde", "curl-client"] }
 //!    ```
 //! - **[curl](https://github.com/alexcrichton/curl-rust)**, using [libcurl](https://curl.se/libcurl/)
 //!    ```toml
@@ -99,6 +109,12 @@
 #![allow(clippy::needless_doctest_main)]
 #![allow(clippy::needless_lifetimes)] // False positive in client/mod.rs query fn
 
+#[cfg(all(feature = "reqwest", feature = "surf"))]
+compile_error!("You need to choose between reqwest and surf; enabling both is not supported");
+
+#[cfg(not(any(feature = "reqwest", feature = "surf")))]
+compile_error!("You need to choose an http client; consider not disabling default features");
+
 mod client;
 mod error;
 mod query;
diff --git a/influxdb/tests/integration_tests.rs b/influxdb/tests/integration_tests.rs
index d92f405..631023b 100644
--- a/influxdb/tests/integration_tests.rs
+++ b/influxdb/tests/integration_tests.rs
@@ -28,9 +28,9 @@ async fn test_ping_influx_db_async_std() {
 
 /// INTEGRATION TEST
 ///
-/// This test case tests whether the InfluxDB server can be connected to and gathers info about it * tested with tokio
+/// This test case tests whether the InfluxDB server can be connected to and gathers info about it - tested with tokio 1.0
 #[tokio::test]
-#[cfg(not(tarpaulin_include))]
+#[cfg(not(any(tarpaulin_include, feature = "hyper-client")))]
 async fn test_ping_influx_db_tokio() {
     let client = create_client("notusedhere");
     let result = client.ping().await;
@@ -386,7 +386,7 @@ async fn test_json_query() {
 /// INTEGRATION TEST
 ///
 /// This test case tests whether the response to a GROUP BY can be parsed by
-// deserialize_next_tagged into a tags struct
+/// deserialize_next_tagged into a tags struct
 #[async_std::test]
 #[cfg(feature = "use-serde")]
 #[cfg(not(tarpaulin_include))]
@@ -453,8 +453,10 @@ async fn test_json_query_tagged() {
 /// is equal to the data which was written to the database
 /// (tested with tokio)
 #[tokio::test]
-#[cfg(feature = "use-serde")]
-#[cfg(not(tarpaulin_include))]
+#[cfg(all(
+    feature = "use-serde",
+    not(any(tarpaulin_include, feature = "hyper-client"))
+))]
 async fn test_json_query_vec() {
     use serde::Deserialize;