SOAP vs REST web services

Comparing SOAP to REST for building web services is a bit like comparing apples with pears: SOAP is a protocol, REST is a pattern, and you could, if you felt so inclined, write RESTful services using SOAP.  However, when people ask this question, they usually mean: SOAP (as in WSDL, perhaps RPC style, WS-* standards), as opposed to REST (as in JSON/XML over HTTP)

Assuming you mean this, below are some pros and cons for each, but note this: REST is increasingly becoming the de-facto standard across the web, being used by the big public API providers in preference to SOAP. I reckon it's just a matter of time before this question will just go away.

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What is SOA - Contract based

Software in general is required to conform to a defined functional interface, and services are no different in this respect. For example, web service interfaces defined in WSDL (Web Service Definition Language) allow the definition of data types, input and output messages, operations, invocation protocols, and even the location of services. WS-Policy may be additionally used to define additional elements of the interface such as security policies.

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What is SOA - Service Characteristics - Abstract

Services must be abstract in the sense that they offer a functional interface that is not tied to any particular underlying implementation of that interface. In other words they should hide implementation details such as programming language, operating system platform, database structure, internal object model, etc. Abstraction supports other service characteristics such as reusability, extensibility and reduces coupling between producer and consumer.

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