Both web services are suitable in their respective fields and domains. REST is a set of guidelines that provide flexible implementations, whereas SOAP is a protocol with specific requirements like XML messaging.
If you are looking for responsive and lightweight then REST is a better solution and if you are looking for security and legacy standards, Simple Object Access Protocol is the better solution.
Both are often mentioned when speaking about web services. While both are the two major approaches to transfer data over a network using API calls.
Table of Contents
What is Web Services?
We use Web services mainly for online application-to-application communication. Computers use them to communicate with each other over the Internet.
In other words, whenever we try to access any resource over the internet, that is Web Service
REST Vs SOAP
Each technology has its advantages and disadvantages. Therefore, it is always good to understand in which situations each design should be used.
There are following differences between both web services:
| # | SOAP | REST |
| 1 | SOAP stands for Simple Object Access Protocol. | REST stands for Representational State Transfer. |
| 2 | SOAP can not use REST because it is a protocol. | But REST can use SOAP web services as it is a concept and can use any protocol such as HTTP, SOAP. |
| 3 | SOAP is strictly bounded to the XML data format. | But REST does not have any restriction with data format. We can send or receive data in any format like in JSON, text, Image etc. |
| 4 | It requires more power, resources and bandwidth. | Whereas it requires fewer resources. |
| 5 | SOAP has its own security system. | REST uses WS-Security. |
| 6 | It is heavy-weight because of XML restriction. | It is light-weight architecture. |
| 7 | SOAP services are not cacheable. | But REST services are cacheable. |
| 8 | It is difficult for beginners to adopt SOAP. | REST is easy to adopt even for a beginner. |
| 9 | SOAP is less preferred than REST. | REST more preferred than SOAP. |
Advantages of SOAP and REST
REST: provides scalability, better performance, browser-friendliness, flexibility.
SOAP: provides high security, standardized, extensibility.
Disadvantages of SOAP and REST
SOAP: Poor performance, more complexity, less flexibility.
REST: Low security, not suitable for distributed environments.
In conclusion, you can use both the web services at different places in different contexts as per your requirement.
