POST vs PUT – What’s The Difference?

POST and PUT are HTTP request methods used for designing a system. However, many people are perplexed by how these two are different from each other. So, in this article, we will go through POST vs PUT in detail.

Before discussing POST vs PUT, let’s first discuss HTTP. So, HTTP, or Hypertext Transfer Protocol, is a request-response protocol that allows clients and servers to communicate. HTTP requests have grown in popularity due to their current URLs. HTTP requests are classified into GET, POST, and PUT. The POST and PUT are the most secure methods of transferring data over HTTP.

You can also explore: What is the Difference Between HTTP and HTTPS?

Now that we have understood what HTTP is. Let’s get to the main business. But, before we do that, let’s quickly go through the list of topics listed under the table of contents we will cover in this article.

You can also explore: Difference Between Internet and Intranet

Table of contents (TOC)

• POST vs PUT
• What is POST?
• Advantages of POST
• What is PUT?
• Advantages of PUT

POST vs PUT 

For a better understanding, let’s go through POST vs PUT in a tabular format.

Parameter	POST	PUT
Is this method is idempotent?	No	Yes
When is this method called?	When you need to add a child resource under resources collection.	When you need to change a single resource that is already part of a resource collection
Can you cache responses?	No	Yes. But we should not cache its response.
Syntax	POST /questions	PUT /questions/{question-id}
Works as	Abstract	Specific
For which type of operations is it used?	Create	Update
Who decides which URI resource should have?	Server	Client
The result will be the same if you send the same request multiple times.	No	Yes

What is POST? 

POST is a method that depicts a web server accepting the data contained in the body of the requested message.

POST is an HTTP-supported method that describes how a web server accepts data from the body of the message requested by HTTP. The World Wide Web frequently employs this method to send user-generated data to the web server or when you upload a file.

Clients can send data to a specific URI and demand the resource to handle the request using the POST method. The data sent through the POST method are cacheable if the server includes the appropriate cache control and expires headers with the request.

Here’s an example of POST : HTTP POST http://www.naukri.com/users/674/accounts

You can also explore: GitHub vs GitLab – Difference Between Them?

Advantages of POST 

There are many advantages of POST, and among those advantages, some of the most popular advantages are:

• Assists you in determining resources URI
• Protects your data by keeping your data private
• Supports both binary and ASCII data transmission
• Allows you to send data generated by users to the web server
• Comes in handy when you do not know the URL to keep any resource
• Increase security by not storing requests in browser history
• Allows you to easily send a large amount of data using post
• Allows you to send a request to the resource identified by the URI to accept the entity as a new subordinate

You can also explore: CPU vs GPU? What’s the Difference?

What is PUT?

PUT is a method that replaces all of the characters at the target URL with different characters.

The PUT request will place the resource at the URI specified in the request. If the resource already exists at the URI, PUT overwrites it. In addition, if the resource does not exist, the PUT request will create it. To put it more simply, you can use the PUT method to create a new resource or overwrite an existing one.

Here’s an example of PUT : HTTP PUT http://www.naukri.com/users/674/accounts/471

Advantages of PUT

There are many advantages of PUT, and among those advantages, some of the most popular advantages are:

• Identifies the entity enclosed with the request
• Makes the process of creating a resource very simple
• Allows you to create resources as many times as you want
• Aids programmers in storing the supplied object or item under the provided URI
• Removes the need to check if the user has pressed the submit button numerous times or not

Conclusion

Both PUT and POST are popular HTTP methods. As a result, it is natural for developers to become confused, mix them up, or even use them interchangeably. Therefore, if you are unsure what to use between POST vs PUT, it is always best to determine the idempotency of the action you intend to perform before choosing if you should employ the PUT or POST method.