SOAP: XML-based for enterprise application
- mature and comprehensive and it is used in financial services and payment gateways where security and reliability are key.
- SOAP is not good for lightweight mobile applications because it is complex and verbose.
RESTful: resource-based for web servers
- Popular and easy to implement.
- Use HTTP methods.
- Most web services use REST.
- For real-time data, it is not applicable.
GraphQL: Query Language reduces network load
- The client can ask for specific data that is needed.
- more efficient network communications and faster responses.
- Flexible and efficient.
- Developed by Meta.
gRPC: High performance for microservices
- modern and high performant.
- Netflix uses gRPC to handle their interservice communication.
- Pose challenge for browser clients due to Less browser support.
WebSocket: Bidirectional for low latency data exchange
- real-time bidirectional and persistent connections.
- perfect for live chat applications and real-time gaming.
- If we don't need real-time data then using websocket might be an overhead.
Webhook: Asynchronous for event-driven application
- If we need to send a notification or email, we use webhook.
- It sends data asynchronously.
- If we need data or response synchronously then webhook might not be useful.