Key Differences between ESB and SOA

*SOA is an architectural approach where we expose ‘service’ in a coarse-grained manner whereas ESB is a technical implementation that aids in delivering an SOA.

*SOA brings cost-effective, reusable and low lead-time solutions to an organization whereas ESB enables low-cost integration and is used by companies with limited IT resources.

*SOA is a way of building the next generation of applications from ‘Lego blocks’ called Services whereas ESB is a piece of infrastructure software that provides APIs for developers to create services and send messages between services.

*SOA is just like a car and ESB is like a road on which this car runs.

*SOA is an architectural model for implementing loosely coupled service-based applications whereas ESB is a piece of infrastructure software that helps developers to develop services, and communicate between services through suitable APIs.

ESB can be used as a platform on which SOA is realized. ESB is only the medium through which the services flow. ESB provides facilities for the composition and deployment of services, which in turn implement the SOA.