The key difference between the terms REST versus RESTful is that REST refers to a philosophy about the architecture and design of web services, while the term RESTful refers to any API that properly ...

Many Web API designers claim their are RESTful, but their APIs have little in common with REST. What can be done to make a web service API truly RESTful?

Developers use application programming interfaces to hide complexity, organize code, design reusable components, and connect different systems, applications, or services.

The problem with RESTful web services that use JSON or XML as a data exchange is bloat and verbosity. Compare REST vs GraphQL performance if you want to simplify your web API development.