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ASMX vs. WCF, an airplane analogy

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Keith Elder has what I think is a nice analogy of the difference between ASMX web services and WCF services:

This question comes up a lot in conversations I have with developers. 

“Why would I want to switch to ASMX services?”

One analogy I have come up with to explain the difference between the two is an airplane analogy. 

I associate ASMX services with a Cessna 150 cockpit and I associate WCF services with a 747 Jumbo Jet cockpit.

See the full post for great compare and contrast photos, as well as the full argument.

I don’t agree 100% with his conclusion, which seems to weigh heavily in favor of WCF. In my opinion, there are times when a Cessna 150 is just what you need, and the same is true of ASMX. But I think he’s absolutely right when he notes that the reward for learning the complexities of WCF configuration is a much more powerful and flexible tool for providing and hosting services.

Comments

  • Anonymous
    October 23, 2008
    A "Silverlight Enabled WCF Service" will get you the Cessna controls with a 747 engine. You messing with contracts, and the config file is set up for SOAP 1.1 All you need is the Silverlight dev tools which include that project item template. Pete

  • Anonymous
    October 30, 2008
    Can we do coding for cascading dropdown with ajax and WCF