REST stands for “REpresentational State Transfer”. It is a concept or architecture for managing information over the internet. REST concepts are referred to as resources. A representation of a resource must be stateless. It is usually represented by JSON.

API stands for “Application Programming Interface”. It is a set or rules that allows one piece of software application to talk to another. Those “rules” can include create, read, update and delete operations.

Client-Server: This constraint operates on the concept that the client and the server should be separate from each other and allowed to evolve individually.

Stateless: REST APIs are stateless, meaning that calls can be made independently of one another, and each call contains all of the data necessary to complete itself successfully.

Cache: Because a stateless API can increase request overhead by handling large loads of incoming and outbound calls, a REST API should be designed to encourage the storage of cacheable data.

Uniform Interface: The key to the decoupling client from server is having a uniform interface that allows independent evolution of the application without having the application’s services, or models and actions, tightly coupled to the API layer itself.

Layered System: REST APIs have different layers of their architecture working together to build a hierarchy that helps create a more scalable and modular application.

Code on Demand: Code on Demand allows for code or applets to be transmitted via the API for use within the application.

Unlike SOAP, REST is not constrained to XML, but instead can return XML, JSON, YAML or any other format depending on what the client requests. And unlike RPC, users aren’t required to know procedure names or specific parameters in a specific order.

One of the disadvantages of RESTful APIs is that you can lose the ability to maintain state in REST, such as within sessions. It can also be more difficult for newer developers to use.