REST Web Services and Other Integration Options

To decide the best integration option for your purposes, consider the following comparisons.

The following table compares the characteristics of REST web services with those of SOAP web services and RESTlets.

Note:

The limits for concurrent requests are unified for SOAP and REST web services and for RESTlets. For information about account concurrency, see Web Services and RESTlet Concurrency Governance.

Note:

For a comparison of RESTlets with other integration options, see RESTlets vs. Other NetSuite Integration Options.

Attribute	REST Web Services	SOAP Web Services	RESTlets
Supported Operations	get, search, add, update, delete	get, search, add, update, delete	get, search, add, update
Authentication Supported?	Yes (token-based authentication, OAuth 2.0)	Yes (user credentials; token-based authentication) Important: User credentials are not preferred as an authentication method for SOAP web services. If you are currently using this method, you should transition to use token-based authentication instead.	Yes (user credentials; token-based authentication, OAuth 2.0) Important: As of the 2021.1 release, user credentials authentication for newly created RESTlets is not supported. If you attempt to authenticate a new RESTlet with user credentials after your account is upgraded to 2021.1, an HTTP error response is returned. For more information, see Using User Credentials for RESTlet Authentication.
Passing of Login Details	in OAuth authorization header	in body (SOAP)	in authorization header
Passing of Parameters	all parameters on URL	all parameters in body (SOAP)	GET parameters on URL
Supported Content Types	JSON, Swagger	text/xml (explicit)	JSON, text/xml (explicit)
Environment	lightweight, no coding and script deployment needed on the server side, suitable for mobile devices	heavy programming and deployment environment (C#, Java) no coding and script deployment needed on the server side	lightweight, suitable for mobile devices, bundleable
Functionality	Metadata catalog. See Working with Resource Metadata CRUD. See Working with Records. Record Filtering and Query	CRUD Search	All functionality available through SuiteScript: CRUD Search Query Note: SuiteScript does not provide metadata.
Standards	Similar to the REST APIs of other Oracle products	SOAP protocol	No standards
Required User Knowledge	REST programmer API level knowledge	SOAP programmer API level knowledge	JavaScript programmer SuiteScript level knowledge
Performance	Using REST API, fewer calls may be required to accomplish a business flow. Therefore the overall performance may be better than SOAP and CSV.	SOAP web services require more calls to accomplish a business flow than the REST API.	RESTlets are the fastest integration channel. All actions required for a business flow can be executed within a single call.

Attribute

REST Web Services

SOAP Web Services

RESTlets

Supported Operations

get, search, add, update, delete

get, search, add, update

Authentication Supported?

Yes (token-based authentication, OAuth 2.0)

Yes (user credentials; token-based authentication)

Important:

User credentials are not preferred as an authentication method for SOAP web services. If you are currently using this method, you should transition to use token-based authentication instead.

Yes (user credentials; token-based authentication, OAuth 2.0)

Important:

As of the 2021.1 release, user credentials authentication for newly created RESTlets is not supported. If you attempt to authenticate a new RESTlet with user credentials after your account is upgraded to 2021.1, an HTTP error response is returned. For more information, see Using User Credentials for RESTlet Authentication.

Passing of Login Details

in OAuth authorization header

in body (SOAP)

in authorization header

Passing of Parameters

all parameters on URL

all parameters in body (SOAP)

GET parameters on URL

Supported Content Types

JSON, Swagger

text/xml (explicit)

JSON, text/xml (explicit)

Environment

lightweight, no coding and script deployment needed on the server side, suitable for mobile devices

heavy programming and deployment environment (C#, Java)

no coding and script deployment needed on the server side

lightweight, suitable for mobile devices, bundleable

Functionality

Metadata catalog. See Working with Resource Metadata
CRUD. See Working with Records.
Record Filtering and Query

CRUD
Search

All functionality available through SuiteScript:

CRUD
Search
Query

Note:

SuiteScript does not provide metadata.

Standards

Similar to the REST APIs of other Oracle products

SOAP protocol

No standards

Required User Knowledge

REST programmer

API level knowledge

SOAP programmer

API level knowledge

JavaScript programmer

SuiteScript level knowledge

Performance

Using REST API, fewer calls may be required to accomplish a business flow. Therefore the overall performance may be better than SOAP and CSV.

SOAP web services require more calls to accomplish a business flow than the REST API.

RESTlets are the fastest integration channel. All actions required for a business flow can be executed within a single call.

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