Some advantages of REST APIs are as follows:
- Automation: APIs enable and facilitate automatic processes with great ease. You can use an API of some web service in your own code to automate tasks such as checking your timeline, posting a message, and so on.
- Separation between the client and the server: The REST protocol completely separates the user interface of the server and the storage of data. That has some advantages when making developments. For example, it improves the portability of the interface to other platforms, increases the scalability of the projects, and allows the different components of the developments to evolve independently.
- External database access: APIs allow website visitors to access remote, password-protected databases. Your API password and username authorizes permission for information to be exchanged between your website and the API's database-driven resources.
- Visibility, reliability, and scalability: The separation between client and server has an evident advantage: any development team can scale the product without excessive problems. You can migrate to other servers or make all kinds of changes in the database, as long as the data of each of the requests is sent correctly. This separation makes it easier to have the frontend and backend on different servers, and that makes the applications more flexible when it comes to working.
- The REST API is always independent of the type of platform or language: The REST APIs always adapt to the type of syntax or platforms with which they are working, which offers great freedom when changing or testing new environments during development. With a REST API you can have PHP, Java, Python, or Node.js servers. The only thing that is essential is that the responses to requests are always made in the information exchange language used, usually XML or JSON.