Analogy for REST vs. SOAP

The letter analogy

A nice analogy for REST vs. SOAP is mailing a letter: with SOAP, you're using an envelope; with REST, it's a postcard. Postcards are easier to handle (by the receiver), waste less paper (i.e., consume less bandwidth), and have a short content. (Of course, REST requests aren't really limited in length, esp. if they use POST rather than GET.)

But don't carry the analogy too far: unlike letters-vs.-postcards, REST is every bit as secure as SOAP. In particular, REST can be carried over secure sockets (using the HTTPS protocol), and content can be encrypted using any mechanism you see fit. Without encryption, REST and SOAP are both insecure; with proper encryption in place, both are equally secure.

http://rest.elkstein.org/2008/02/how-simple-is-rest.html