Each technique has its own set of advantages and disadvantages. It is always a good idea to understand when each design should be used. This REST and SOAP API difference tutorial will go over some of the key differences between REST and SOAP. So here this article gives the difference between SOAP vs REST to better understands this topic.
What is SOAP?
Prior to the introduction of REST, there was a protocol known as SOAP. The main goal of developing SOAP was to ensure programmers written in different platforms and programming languages could exchanges data easily.
Related terms: WADL Vs WSDL
What is REST?
REST was designed to work specifically with media components, files, and even objects on a specific hardware device. Any web service that follows the REST principles is referred to as a restful web service. A restful service would use standard HTTP verbs such as GET, POST, PUT, and DELETE to interact with the required components.
Related terms: HTTP vs HTTPS
SOAP vs REST | Difference between SOAP and REST:
- SOAP is a protocol, whereas REST is an architectural style.
- SOAP is an abbreviation for simple object access protocol, and REST is an abbreviation for representational state transfer.
- SOAP cannot use REST because it is a protocol, whereas REST can use SOAP web services because it can use any protocol, such as HTTP.
- SOAP exposes business logic through a service interface, whereas REST exposes business logic through URIs.
- JAX WS is the Java API for SOAP web services, whereas JAX-RS exposes business logic via URI.
- SOAP defines standards that must be strictly followed, whereas REST does not define as many standards as SOAP.
- SOAP necessitates more bandwidth and resources than REST, whereas REST necessitates less bandwidth and resources than SOAP.
- REST web services inherit security measures from the underlying transport, whereas SOAP defines its own.
- SOAP only supports XML data formats. REST supports a variety of data formats, including plain text, HTML, XML, JSON, and others.
- SOAP is less preferred than REST, while REST is preferred over SOAP.
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