What are disadvantages of SOAP?

Question

What are disadvantages of SOAP?

Answer

SOAP is typically significantly slower than other types of middleware (https://searchmicroservices.techtarget.com/definition/middleware) standards, including CORBA, because SOAP uses a detailed XML format. A complete understanding of the performance limitations before building applications around SOAP is hence required. SOAP is usually limited to pooling and not to event notifications when HTTP is used for the transport. In addition, only one client can use the services of one server in typical situations. If HTTP is used as the transport protocol, firewall latency usually occurs since the firewall analyzes the HTTP transport. This is because HTTP is also leveraged for Web browsing, and so many firewalls do not understand the difference between using HTTP within a web browser and using HTTP within SOAP. SOAP has different support levels, depending on the supported programming language. For instance, SOAP supported in Python (https://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/Python) and PHP is not as powerful as it is in Java and .NET