In this blog, I’m explaining difference between web service and WCF service.

Web service:

1.       It can be hosted in IIS.

2.       It can only be invoked by HTTP.

3.       Web services in Asp.net  have “.asmx” file extension.

4.       It does not support multi-threading.

5.       Web services are slower than WCF.

6.       It use [WebService] and [WebMethod] attributes.

7.       Using webService only public fields/properties can be serialized and it cannot serialized Hash table.

WCF service:

1.       It can be hosted in IIS, WAS (window Activation service), Window service ,self hosting.

2.       It can be accessed through Http, TCP, MSMQ, Message Queuing and point to point.

3.       WCF have “.svc” file  extension.

4.       It supports multi-threading using “ServiceBehavior” class.

5.       It is faster than Web service.

6.       It use [ServiceContract] and [serviceContract] attributes.

7.       It can serialize public/private fields as well as Hash table.