REST
Definition
Representational State Transfer (REST) is an architectural style for designing networked applications, promoting simplicity and scalability in web APIs.
Use Cases
- GitHub: Provide programmatic access to repositories, issues, pull requests, and automation workflows for developers and tools. — Publishes a versioned REST API over HTTPS using resource-based URLs (for example, repositories and issues), standard HTTP methods (GET/POST/PATCH/DELETE), and token-based authentication. Responses are typically JSON and include pagination and rate limiting. (Enables a large ecosystem of integrations (CI/CD tools, bots, dashboards) and allows developers to automate common tasks at scale.)
- Stripe: Let businesses create payments, manage customers, and handle subscriptions from web and mobile apps. — Exposes REST-style endpoints over HTTPS with JSON request/response bodies, API keys for authentication, idempotency keys to safely retry requests, and webhooks to notify clients about asynchronous events (for example, payment succeeded). (Reduces time to integrate payments and supports reliable transaction processing through consistent API patterns and safe retries.)
- Shopify: Allow merchants and partners to manage products, orders, and inventory and to build apps for Shopify stores. — Offers REST APIs with authenticated access (OAuth for apps), resource-oriented endpoints (products, orders), and standard HTTP semantics. Clients use pagination and filtering to efficiently retrieve large datasets. (Supports a broad app ecosystem and enables merchants to connect external systems (ERP, fulfillment, analytics) with their storefront operations.)
Frequently Asked Questions
- What's the difference between REST and SOAP?
- REST is an architectural style that typically uses HTTP methods (GET, POST, PUT/PATCH, DELETE) and often exchanges JSON. SOAP is a strict protocol that usually uses XML, has formal contracts (WSDL), and can include additional standards for security and messaging. REST is often simpler for web and mobile apps, while SOAP is more common in some legacy enterprise integrations.
- When should I use REST APIs?
- Use REST when you need a simple, widely supported way to expose data or actions over HTTP—especially for web and mobile apps, microservices, and public APIs. REST works well when your system can model things as resources (users, orders, photos) and you want caching, stateless requests, and easy integration with standard HTTP tooling.
- How much does REST cost?
- REST itself is free—it’s a design approach. Costs come from running the API (compute/serverless), an API gateway or load balancer, data transfer, logging/monitoring, and any backend databases. Pricing depends on request volume, payload sizes, authentication needs, and whether you use managed services (for example, API gateways) versus self-hosting.
Category: software
Difficulty: intermediate
Related Terms
See Also