API Testing Tutorial Part 11 – Difference Between SOAP and Rest Web Services or API

Hello Folks,

As part of our API Testing series, we will see “Difference between SOAP and REST web services” in this post.

Note: It is a frequently asked interview question in interviews.

Designing a web services or API depends on two common implementation:

1. SOAP – Simple Object Access Protocol
2. REST – Representational State Transfer Protocol

 

Kindly understand here that you can create a Web service or API using either of them. So which is best for you depends on your project or system requirements. This post will explain basic differences between SOAP and REST. REST web services are in demand now.

Basic differences between SOAP and REST are as below:

1. SOAP is a protocol to be followed while developing a web services using SOAP while REST is an architectural style which is followed by web services if developed using REST. A REST webservice can use SOAP.
2. SOAP supports XML message format while REST supports plain text, HTML,XML,JSON etc.
3. SOAP is function driven while REST is data driven or resource driven.
4. SOAP can use many protocols like HTTP,SMTP etc while REST uses only HTTP.
5. SOAP is more secure as it provides WS-Security and inbuilt ACID (Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, Durability) compliances while REST supports HTTPS and SSL which make then less secure.
6. SOAP is complex, less flexible and requires more bandwidth and computing power because of its strict rules and tighter security. REST provides more flexibility and easy to use with less resources and bandwidth.
7. SOAP calls cannot be cached while REST call can be.
8. SOAP uses JAX-WS java API while REST uses JAX-RS.
9. SOAP invoke services using RPC (Remote Procedure Calls) while REST uses HTTP methods.
10. SOAP is a official standard while REST is not.
11. SOAP should be used for banking applications, payment gateways etc while REST can be used for less secure applications, public APIs.
12. SOAP can support Javascript which is difficult while REST provides inbuilt support for Javascript.

 

If you have any doubt, feel free to comment below.
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