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+.. _backends_summary:
+
 Supported backends
 ==================
 
+sttp suports a number of synchornous and asynchronous backends. It's the backends that take care of managing connections, sending requests and receiving responses: sttp defines only the API to describe the requests to be send and handle the response data. It's the backends where all the heavy-lifting is done.
+
+Choosing the right backend depends on a number of factors: if you are using sttp to explore some data, or is it a production system; are you using a synchornous, blocking architecture or an asynchronous one; do you work mostly with Scala's ``Future``, or maybe you use some form of a ``Task`` abstraction; finally, if you want to stream requests/responses, or not.
+
+Each backend has two type parameters:
+
+* ``R[_]``, the type constructor in which responses are wrapped. That is, when you invoke ``send()`` on a request description, do you get a ``Response[_]`` directly, or is it wrapped in a ``Future`` or a ``Task``?
+* ``S``, the type of supported streams. If ``Nothing``, streaming is not supported. Otherwise, the given type can be used to send request bodies or receive response bodies.
+
+Below is a summary of all the backends. See the sections on individual backend implementations for more information.
+
 ================================ ============================ ================================================
 Class                            Result wrapper               Supported stream type
 ================================ ============================ ================================================