What is the difference between SOAP and REST web services?

[johnwest]

What is the difference between SOAP and REST web services?

[Akshay_M]

While SOAP and REST share similarities over the HTTP protocol, SOAP is a more rigid set of messaging patterns than REST. The rules in SOAP are important because we can't achieve any level of standardization without them. REST as an architecture style does not require processing and is naturally more flexible.