A webservice is a bridge that lets different applications talk to each other over the internet, even when they were built in different languages and platforms. It is what lets your CRM know what happened in the ERP, or your website send a lead straight into the sales pipeline.
For a B2B company this is not an IT detail. It is the difference between an integrated revenue system and a set of tools that do not talk to each other, where data (and opportunities) get lost in between.
A webservice is a software component that exposes data or functionality to other applications over a network, using standardised protocols that guarantee interoperability between heterogeneous systems. Unlike a local library, it can be consumed remotely by any authorised client.
REST (Representational State Transfer) is the most common standard on the web. It relies on HTTP (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE), treats entities as resources identified by URLs, and is stateless. It is flexible, simple to implement and performs well at scale. Most modern APIs are RESTful.
SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) is an XML based protocol, stricter and more standardised. It offers native security (WS-Security) and higher reliability in complex transactions, which makes it common in financial and enterprise contexts where data integrity is critical.
API (Application Programming Interface) is the broader concept: the set of definitions and protocols that lets two applications communicate. A REST or SOAP webservice is an API exposed on the web, but not every API is a webservice.
| REST | SOAP | |
|---|---|---|
| Format | JSON (also XML) | XML (strict) |
| Security | At transport level (HTTPS) | Native (WS-Security) |
| Typical use | Web, mobile, scale APIs | Financial, enterprise transactions |
No single system covers 100% of a business's requirements. Webservice integrations close that gap: they let your stack work as a system, not as silos.
In our CRM & RevOps work, we treat integrations as infrastructure. We connect HubSpot to the rest of your stack (ERP, billing, telephony, data) with REST and SOAP, so information flows without manual work and the pipeline reflects reality in real time.
If someone on your team exports a file from one system to load into another, you have a webservice waiting to be built, and a hidden cost adding up every month. Take the Diagnosis to see where missing integrations are holding back growth.
References - MDN Web Docs, Web service - W3C, Web Services - IBM, What is an API?