What Is The Difference Between Web Services and APIs?

“The API is described as a simultaneous hold glue on the Internet. They are woven into the fabric of most of the things users do on their devices. Ever wonder how you can play Spotify from within an Uber? APIs enable two otherwise capable entities to talk to each other in a more standardized format”

Features of Web API:-

Here are some essential features of API:

• Efficiency
• Wider reach
• Customizable
• Personalization
• Data ownership
• Easy integration with GUI
• Time effective
• Language-independent

Advantages of API Services:-

1. Provides fast communication within and within organizations.
2. Each service exists independently of other services.
3. Interoperability is a top priority. Using web services, your application helps you to publish its message or function to the rest of the  world.

Disadvantages of API:-

Here are important drawbacks/cons of using API services:

• Creating API is a very time-consuming process
• A fixed scale is necessary
• Imprecise boundary delineation
• To create API, programming knowledge is necessary
• Maintenance cost is very high
• It can crash when testing API

What is Web Service:-

“A web service is a software system designed to support interoperable machine-to-machine interactions on a network. It has an interface described in a machine-procedural format (especially WSDL). Other systems interact with the web service in a manner determined by its description using SOAP-messages, typically exposed using HTTP with an XML serialization with other web-related standards.”

A web service is a collection of open protocols and standards that are widely used for the exchange of data between systems or applications.Software applications using different programming languages ​​and running on multiple platforms. This allows you to use web services to exchange data over a computer network.

Types of Web Services

SOAP – SOAP is a protocol which was designed before REST came into the picture. The main

 idea behind creating SOAP was to ensure that programs built on different platforms and programming languages could securely exchange data.

REST – This was designed specifically for working with components such as media components, files, or even objects on a particular hardware device. Any web service which is defined on the principles of REST can be called a RESTful web service. REST uses the normal

 HTTP verbs of GET, POST, PUT and DELETE for working with the required components.

Features of Web Services

Here are some essential features of web services:

• Loosely coupled
• Synchronous or asynchronous functionality
• Ability to support remote procedure calls
• Supports document exchange

Difference between API and Web Services in Tabular form

Web Service	API
All web services are APIs.	All APIs are not web services.
You need a SOAP protocol to send or receive and data over the network. Therefore it does not have light-weight architecture.	API has a light-weight architecture.
It can be used by any client who understands XML.	It can be used by a client who understands JSON or XML.
Web service uses three styles: REST, SOAP, and XML-RPC for communication.	API can be used for any style of communication.
It provides supports only for the HTTP protocol.	It provides support for the HTTP/s protocol: URL Request/Response Headers, etc.

   Advantages of Web Services:-

1. Provides fast communication within and within organizations

2. Each service exists independently of other services.

3. Interoperability is a top priority. Using web services, your application helps you to publish

   its message or function to the rest of the  world.

Disadvantages of Web Services:-

Drawbacks/cons of using Web services:

• It does not access from browser
• Not leverage emerging Web developments (Semantic Web, AJAX XMLHttpRequest, etc.)
• Some web services are simple to use, but there are some flaws of using it.
• Any time one creates a service to handle a variety of customers, there is a demand for specialized machine requirements.
• The HTTP protocol is not reliable, so it does not offer any guarantee of delivery of the response.

What is the difference between web services and API ?

Imagine that you arrive at a restaurant and you want to have a hearty meal.
To do this you have to take some steps.

You perhaps take a look at the Menu to see if they can provide you with the particular sandwich that you’re craving.

·         Tell the server that you’d like to order a sandwich, with bacon and cheese.

·         The server delivers your order to the kitchen and the kitchen staff will make the sandwich for you, exactly how you’d like it.

·         The server brings you the food, and you eat it, enjoying every bite.

·         You then ask the server if you could please get the check, so you can pay for it.

·         The server will go back to the Point of Sale terminal, print your check and deliver it to your table.

·         You pay the server, perhaps with a tip. And you leave.

         This is a very similar process as to how a Web Application works:

·         The Menu you looked at before you sat down was the API Documentation for the application.

·         The server in the restaurant was the API.

·         The kitchen was a Web Service.

·         The Point of Sale terminal was another Web Service.