Basics: SOAP vs HTTP vs REST

SOAP :Simple Object Access Protocol vs REST:

SOAP - XML-based messaging protocol for exchanging information among computers.

SOAP needs more bandwidth for its usage whereas REST doesn't need much bandwidth

SOAP only works with XML formats whereas REST work with plain text, XML, HTML and JSON.

SOAP is a protocol whereas REST is an architectural pattern.

SOAP cannot make use of REST whereas REST can make use of SOAP.

Ease of coding – Coding REST Services and subsequent implementation is far easier than SOAP.

Protocol means - set of rules that determine how data is transmitted between different devices.

SOAP vs HTTP:

S.No.	SOAP	HTTP
1.	SOAP stands for Simple Object Access Protocol.	HTTP stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol.
2.	It is XML based used for sending and receiving messages.	It is used to transfer information over the internet.
3.	It supports web socket or WS-Addressing, WS-Security, SwA.	It do not supports web socket or WS-Addressing, WS-Security, SwA.
4.	HTTP is over TCP and IP.	SOAP is over HTTP.
5.	It support runtime checking against WSDL.	It do not support runtime checking against WSDL.
6.	It support Automatic processing of Message Transmission Optimization Mechanism (MTOM).	It also support MTOM, but it must use the MIME message domain and design flow should be done to handle the attachments explicitly.
7.	This protocol’s design is Data centric.	This protocol’s design is Document centric.
8.	It is a light weight data interchange protocol.	It is not light weight data transfer protocol as SOAP.