Is using cURL instead of fopen() considered overkill in this scenario?

Using cURL instead of fopen() is not necessarily overkill, especially when dealing with more complex HTTP requests that require additional headers, authentication, or error handling. cURL offers more flexibility and control over the request process compared to fopen(). However, if the request is simple and straightforward, using fopen() may be more than sufficient.

// Using cURL to fetch data from a URL
$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, 'http://example.com/data.json');
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
$response = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);

// Check if the request was successful
if ($response === false) {
    echo 'Error fetching data';
} else {
    echo $response;
}