| S.no | Web Service | WCF |
| 1. | [WebService],[WebMethod] attributes are required to declare the web services | [ServiceContract],[OperationContract] attributes are required to declare the WCF |
| 2. | Web Service supports only HTTP protocol and HTTPS protocol | WCF supports the HTTP, HTTPS, TCP, MSMQ protocols. |
| 3. | Web service can be hosted only on IIS Server | WCF can support the Self Hosting, WAS Hosting, IIS Hosting |
| 4. | Web Service is less Secure compare with WCF | WCF is high secure compare with Web Service |
| 5. | It supports the XML Serialization, i.e., using System.Xml.Serialization; | It supports the Data Contract Serialization, i.e., using System.Runtime.Serialization |
| 6. | Web Service supports the one-way and request-reply communication | WCF supports the one way, Request reply, and Duplex communication. |
| 7. | HashTable cannot be serialized | In WCF, HashTable can be Serialized |
| 8. | In web service, whenever an exception occurs, the exception details are maintained in SOAP fault and send the exception to the client application | In WCF, whenever an exception occurs, the Exception information will not be sent to the client application |
| 9. | Web service does not support multi-threading | WCF supports the Multithreading |
| 10 | We can directly test the web service | In order to test the WCF service, we need to consume the service in a client application |
| 11 | Web Service extension is.ASMX (Active Server Extension) | WCF Extension is.SVC (Service Contract) |