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Asked: 2026-05-30T23:25:12+00:00

I am designing a distributed application that will consist of RESTful services and a

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I am designing a distributed application that will consist of RESTful services and a variety of clients (Silverlight, iOS, Windows Phone 7, etc). Right now I’m determining which technology I should use to implement my services, WCF Data Services (OData) or the new ASP.NET Web API that’s coming out with ASP.NET MVC 4.

I’ve watched a few presentations online about each and right now I’m leaning towards WCF Data Services primarily because of the filtering mechanisms built into the URI and native hypermedia capability. The only downside I can see is the verbosity of the Atom Pub specification as opposed to POX.

Is there anything I should know about these two technologies before making a decision? Why would someone choose ASP.NET Web API over WCF Data Services?

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    This is a subjective question, so here’s a subjective answer. IMO, WCF has way too much overhead for simple RESTful services. Web API, on the other hand, was designed specifically for RESTful services.

    I’m in agreement with Dave Ward on this. Check out his blog for more information.

    I’ve long held out against pressure to move from ASMX to WCF in
    WebForms projects, because accepting WCF’s complexity primarily only
    rewarded me with less flexible JSON serialization. By contrast, I’ve
    begun converting some of my projects from ASMX to Web API, and have
    been pleased with how easily Web API replaces ASMX.

    I believe Microsoft has finally found a good balance between ASMX’s
    simplicity and WCF’s power with Web API.

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