gistfile1.txt

|          #           |                                 SOAP                                 |                                REST                                 |
|----------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Meaning              | Simple Object Access Protocol                                        | Representational State Transfer                                     |
| Design               | Standardized protocol with pre-defined rules to follow.              | Architectural style with loose guidelines and recommendations.      |
| Approach             | Function-driven (data available as services, e.g.: “getUser”)        | Data-driven (data available as resources, e.g. “user”).             |
| Statefulness         | Stateless by default, but it’s possible to make a SOAP API stateful. | Stateless (no server-side sessions).                                |
| Caching              | API calls cannot be cached.                                          | API calls can be cached.                                            |
| Security             | WS-Security with SSL support. Built-in ACID compliance.              | Supports HTTPS and SSL.                                             |
| Performance          | Requires more bandwidth and computing power.                         | Requires fewer resources.                                           |
| Message format       | Only XML.                                                            | Plain text, HTML, XML, JSON, YAML, and others.                      |
| Transfer protocol(s) | HTTP, SMTP, UDP, and others.                                         | Only HTTP                                                           |
| Recommended for      | Enterprise apps, high-security apps, distributed environment,        | Public APIs for web services, mobile services, social networks.     |
|                      | financial services, payment gateways, telecommunication services.    |                                                                     |
| Advantages           | High security, standardized, extensibility.                          | Scalability, better performance, browser-friendliness, flexibility. |
| Disadvantages        | Poorer performance, more complexity, less flexibility.               | LesLess security, not suitable for distributed environments.        |