Though web application vs web service sound alike, they are as different as chalk and cheese. If you are confused about these two terms and don’t know what is the difference between application services and web services, you have landed in the right place.
In this article, Axalize will help you have a better understanding of these two essential parts of the web, their differences and which one you should choose.
Table of Contents
What Are Application Services?
Application services, also known as web application services, are interactive software applications that can be accessed via web browsers.
These services offer end-users a human-readable interface that people can interact with, perform certain actions and access information.
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Are you interested in bringing your dream web application to life?Characteristics Of Application Services
From our experience, most application services have the following features:
- Modularity: Modularity refers to the process of decomposing a large system into small independent parts, each of which performs a particular activity. For example, the payment system, the product catalog and the user login are distinct parts. If you were to modify the accepted payment methods, the product catalog should be unaffected.
- Reusability: Reusability implies that these software program components can be utilized in different software apps. For example, the payment system present in the online store can also be utilized in another software app for ticket purchases.
- Abstraction: Abstraction is all about concealing intricate details from end users. A typical example for this is that when making a purchase, end users ought to see a simple checkout form and not be required to understand the encryption algorithms used to safeguard your payment details.
Examples Of Application Services
Here are some examples of typical web app services to help you visualize application services better:
- Payment processing: Two of the most well-liked web application services that allow users to process their payments are Stripe and PayPal.
- User authentication: Auth0 and Okta are user authentication application services that help manage user logins and verify identities. These services ensure that only authorized users can access certain information or features.
- Data access: Firebase allows your applications to retrieve, update, or manage data from databases without needing to understand the complex details of data storage. And at its core, it’s an application service.
What Are Web Services?
The W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) defines web services as systems of software that enable different machines to interact with each other via a network.
Web services achieve this task by using standardized protocols, such as SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) and REST (Representational State Transfer), to ensure interoperability between various software applications, regardless of their platforms or programming languages.
Characteristics Of Web Services
From what we know, most web services have three things in common:
- Interoperability: As we mentioned, web services allow different systems in various programming languages and running on different platforms to communicate and exchange data seamlessly.
- Platform independence: Web services can be accessed from any device as long as you have access to an internet connection
- Loose coupling: Another noticeable characteristic of web services is that there are minimal dependencies between the services and their users. This allows you to have greater flexibility and scalability because changes in one service do not require changes in others.
Examples Of Web Services
To help you have a better grasp of web service definition, let’s take a look at some well-renowned web services worldwide:
- Amazon Web Services (AWS): AWS provides various web services, including computing power (EC2), storage (S3), and databases (RDS), which you can integrate into various applications to enhance functionality.
- Google Maps API: This API service by Google allows developers to embed Google Maps on web pages, retrieve geographical data, calculate routes, and provide navigation.
- Twitter API: The Twitter API enables applications to interact with Twitter, allowing for functionalities such as posting tweets, reading user timelines, and retrieving trending topics.
What Is The Difference Between Application Services And Web Services?
Now that you have a better understanding of web application vs web service, let us wrap everything up by comparing them side by side.
| Feature | Application Services | Web Services |
| Scope | Within a single application or system | Across applications and systems |
| Communication | Application services use internal function calls or messaging within an application | Web services use standardized network protocols like HTTP, SOAP, and REST |
| Technology | Utilize various technologies such as Java, .NET, Python | Typically use XML or JSON to exchange data |
| Focus | Handle business logic and data processing | Facilitate communication and data exchange between systems |
Web Service Vs Web Application: Which Service Do You Need?
All in all, web services vs web applications might sound familiar, but in fact, they differ in many aspects. Therefore, choosing between a web service and a web application really depends on your specific needs and goals. Here’s our advice to help you make the right decision:
Use web application services if:
| Use web services if:
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If you want to outsource web application development services, feel free to contact our certified web developers for a free 1-on-1 consultation and let us see what we can do to help (don’t worry, we don’t hard sell).
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