Difference between SOAP and REST Web Services

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Difference between SOAP and REST Web Services

SOAP – SOAP is a protocol which was designed before REST and came into the picture. The main idea behind designing SOAP was to ensure that programs built on different platforms and programming languages could exchange data in an easy manner.

REST – This was designed specifically for working with components such as media components, files, or even objects on a particular hardware device. Any web service that is defined on the principles of REST can be called a RestFul web service. A Restful service would use the normal HTTP verbs of GET, POST, PUT and DELETE for working with the required components.

Below are the main differences between SOAP and REST

S.No	SOAP	REST
1.	SOAP stands for Simple Object Access Protocol.	REST stands for Representational State Transfer.
2.	SOAP is a protocol. It defines some standards that should be followed strictly.	REST is an architectural style. It doesn’t define so many standards like SOAP.
3.	SOAP is highly secure as it defines its own security.	REST inherits security measures from the underlying transport.
4.	SOAP message request is processed slower as compared to REST.	REST message request is processed faster as compared to SOAP.
5.	SOAP supports only XML data format.	REST supports data formats like plain text, XML, HTML, JSON, etc.
6.	SOAP is not very easy to implement so it is preferred less.	REST is easier to implement so it is preferred more.
7.	SOAP requires more bandwidth and resources.	REST requires less bandwidth and resources.
8.	In java SOAP web services are implemented usingJAX-WS API.	In java RESTful web services are implemented usingJAX-RS API.
9.	It does not use web caching mechanism.	It uses web caching mechanism.
10.	SOAP is commonly used in payment gateways, financial and telecommunication services.	REST is commonly used in social media, web chat and mobile services.