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Asked: 2026-06-10T20:53:34+00:00

Just started with web-services so pardon me if my question sounds stupid. Why do

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Just started with web-services so pardon me if my question sounds stupid.

Why do we need web-services? How are they different from normal web applications?

Two uses have been mentioned in many of the tutorials. One is the communication between different machines/applications, which sounds fine. But the next one is to develop reusable application components. My question is, do we need web services for that purpose?

For Eg: A Currency converter can be implemented as a web service and it can be published on a url. But then, the same can be created as a web-application. Where is the actual advantage of using web-services?

Also as per some posts in SO, webservices should be used if no UI is involved and web-applications if a gui is required. Is the choice all that simple?

Note: Here I’m referring to SOAP based web-service. RESTful ones might be different.

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  1. Editorial Team

    Web services (esp SOAP) are designed to be consumed / read / used by other programs. If you’ve ever had to write a “screen scrape” program (i.e., operate a web application and pick out the data you need from all the goo that makes the page pretty and friendly for the user) you’ll appreciate the structure.

    Also as per some posts in SO, webservices should be used if no UI is involved and web-applications if a gui is required. Is the choice all that simpe?

    In a nutshell, “yes”.

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