Web service is a part of WCF. WCF offers much more flexibility and portability to develop a service when comparing to web service. Following table provides detailed difference between them.
| Features | Web Service | WCF |
|---|---|---|
| Hosting | It can be hosted in IIS | It can be hosted in IIS, windows activation service, Self-hosting, Windows service |
| Programming | [WebService] attribute has to be added to the class | [ServiceContraact] attribute has to be added to the class |
| Model | [WebMethod] attribute represents the method exposed to client | [OperationContract] attribute represents the method exposed to client |
| Operation | One-way, Request- Response are the different operations supported in web service | One-Way, Request-Response, Duplex are different type of operations supported in WCF |
| XML | System.Xml.serialization name space is used for serialization | System.Runtime.Serialization namespace is used for serialization |
| Encoding | XML 1.0, MTOM(Message Transmission Optimization Mechanism), DIME, Custom | XML 1.0, MTOM, Binary, Custom |
| Transports | Can be accessed through HTTP, TCP, Custom | Can be accessed through HTTP, TCP, Named pipes, MSMQ,P2P, Custom |
| Protocols | Security | Security, Reliable messaging, Transactions |