RESTful vs SOAP

Both RESTful web series and SOAP web service can operate cross platform they are architecturally different to each other

	RESTful web services	SOAP web services
Simplicity and easiness	·         REST is more simple and easy to use than SOAP. ·         REST language is based on use of nouns and verbs (better readability)
Protocol for producing or consuming web services	·         REST uses HTTP	·         SOAP uses XML.
Protocol Support	·         Transport protocol specific. ·         Supports only HTTP or HTTPS protocols.	·         Transport protocol neutral ·         Supports multiple protocols like HTTP(S), TCP, UDP, SMTP, Messaging, etc.
Lightweight	·         REST is lightweight as compared to SOAP and preferred choice in        mobile devices and PDA’s. ·         REST does not need XML parsing, no message header (to and from), hence less bandwidth
Format	·         REST supports different format like  Text, JSON, XML	·         SOAP only supports XML.
	Permits multiple data formats like XML, JSON data, text, HTML, etc. Any browser can be used because the REST approach uses the standard GET, PUT, POST, and DELETE Web operations. The focus is on accessing the named resources and exposing the data as a service. REST has AJAX support. It can use the XMLHttpRequest object. Good for stateless CRUD (Create, Read, Update, and Delete) operations. ·         GET – represent() POST – acceptRepresention() PUT – storeRepresention() DELETE – removeRepresention()	·         Permits only XML data format. You define operations, which tunnels through the POST. ·         The focus is on accessing the named operations and exposing the application logic as a service.
Caching reads	·         REST based reads can be cached. ·         Performs and scales better.	·         SOAP based reads cannot be cached.
error handling	·         requires HTTP error handling	·         can have user defined error
	·         REST only supports synchronous message because of its reliance of HTTP and HTTPS. ·         The REST supports only point-to-point SSL security. The SSL encrypts the whole message, whether all of it is sensitive or not.	·         SOAP WS supports both SSL security and WS-security, which adds some enterprise security features like  maintaining security right up to the point where it is needed, maintaining identities through intermediaries and not just point to point SSL only, securing different parts of the message with different security algorithms, etc.
ACID	·         The REST supports transactions, but it is neither ACID compliant nor can provide two phase commit across distributed transactional resources as it is limited by its HTTP protocol.	·         The SOAP has comprehensive support for both ACID based transaction management for short-lived transactions and compensation based transaction management for long-running transactions. ·          It also supports two-phase commit across distributed resources.
retry logic	·         REST does not have a standard messaging system, and expects clients invoking the service to deal with communication failures by retrying.	·         The SOAP has success or retry logic built in and provides end-to-end reliability even through SOAP intermediaries.