| REST | SOAP |
| REST is basically a architectural pattern. | SOAP is nothing but a messaging protocol. |
| REST is one of the calls services which uses URL path. | SOAP calls services by calling Remote Procedure Call(RPC) method. |
| REST is always stateless. | On the other hand SOAP has some specifications for both stateless and stateful implemenatation. |
| Rest will mainly works with various text formats like plain text, HTML, JSON and XML. | SOAP works with XML formats. |
| REST is always faster when compared to SOAP. | SOAP performance is slower when we compare with REST. |
| REST uses XML and JSON to receive and send data. | SOAP uses Web Service Description Language (WSDL) to communicate between consumer or user and providers. |
| REST need to resend transfer whenever it determine any errors. | SOAP includes built-in error handling for communications errors using WS-ReliableMessaging specification. |