--- description: JSON vs XML: The key difference between XML and JSON is that JSON object has a type whereas XML data is typeless. XML is more secure compared to JSON. title: JSON vs XML – Difference Between Them image: https://www.guru99.com/images/1/090719_0543_JSONvsXMLWh1.png --- [Skip to content](#main) ## Key Difference Between JSON and XML * JSON object has a type whereas XML data is typeless. * JSON does not provide namespace support while XML provides namespaces support. * JSON has no display capabilities whereas XML offers the capability to display data. * JSON is less secured whereas XML is more secure compared to JSON. * JSON supports only UTF-8 encoding whereas XML supports various encoding formats. ## What is JSON? **[JSON](https://www.guru99.com/json-tutorial-example.html)** is a file format that uses human-readable text for storing and transmitting data objects containing attribute-value pairs and arrays. JSON is used to store information in an organized and easy-to-access manner. JSON stands for JavaScript Object Notation. It offers a human-readable collection of data that can be accessed logically. ## What is XML? **[XML](https://www.guru99.com/xml-tutorials.html)** is an extensible markup language that is designed to store data. It is popularly used for transferring data. It is case-sensitive. XML allows you to define markup elements and generate customized markup language. An element is a basic unit in the XML language. The extension of XML file is .xml. ## History of JSON Here are important landmarks that form the history of JSON: * Douglas Crockford specified the JSON format in the early 2000s. * The official website was launched in 2002. * In December 2005, Yahoo! starts offering some of its web services in JSON. * JSON became an ECMA international standard in 2013. * The most updated JSON format standard was published in 2017. ## History of XML Here, are the important landmark from the history of XML: * XML was also derived from SGML. * Version 1.0 of XML was released in February 1998. * Jan 2001:IETF Proposed Standard: XML Media Types * XML is the Extensible Markup Language. * 1970: Charles Goldfarb, Ed Mosher, and Ray Lorie invented GML * The development of XML started in the year 1996 at Sun Microsystem ## Features of JSON * **Easy to use** – JSON API offers high-level facade, which helps you to simplify commonly used use-cases. * **Performance** – JSON is quite fast as it consumes very less memory space, which is especially suitable for large object graphs or systems. * **Free tool** – JSON library is open source and free to use. * **Doesn’t require to create mapping** – Jackson API provides default mapping for many objects to be serialized. * **Clean JSON** – Creates clean, and compatible JSON result that is easy to read. * **Dependency** – JSON library does not require any other library for processing. ## Features of XML * XML tags are not predefined. You need to define your customized tags. * XML was designed to carry data, not allows you to display that data. * Mark-up code of XML is easy to understand for a human. * Well, the structured format is easy to read and write from programs. * XML is an extensible markup language like HTML. ### RELATED ARTICLES * [Web Service(WS) Security Tutorial with SOAP Example ](https://www.guru99.com/security-web-services.html "Web Service(WS) Security Tutorial with SOAP Example") * [Web Services Tutorial for Beginners ](https://www.guru99.com/web-services-tutorial.html "Web Services Tutorial for Beginners") * [API vs Web Service – Difference Between Them ](https://www.guru99.com/api-vs-web-service-difference.html "API vs Web Service – Difference Between Them") * [SOA vs Microservices – Difference Between Them ](https://www.guru99.com/microservices-vs-soa.html "SOA vs Microservices – Difference Between Them") ## Difference between JSON and XML [](https://www.guru99.com/images/1/090719%5F0543%5FJSONvsXMLWh1.png) Difference between JSON and XML Here is the prime difference between JSON vs XML: | JSON | XML | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | JSON object has a type | XML data is typeless | | JSON types: string, number, array, Boolean | All XML data should be string | | Data is readily accessible as JSON objects | XML data needs to be parsed. | | JSON is supported by most browsers. | Cross-browser XML parsing can be tricky | | JSON has no display capabilities. | XML offers the capability to display data because it is a markup language. | | JSON supports only text and number data type. | XML support various data types such as number, text, images, charts, graphs, etc. It also provides options for transferring the structure or format of the data with actual data. | | Retrieving value is easy | Retrieving value is difficult | | Supported by many Ajax toolkit | Not fully supported by Ajax toolkit | | A fully automated way of deserializing/serializing [JavaScript](https://www.guru99.com/introduction-to-javascript.html). | Developers have to write JavaScript code to serialize/de-serialize from XML | | Native support for object. | The object has to be express by conventions – mostly missed use of attributes and elements. | | It supports only UTF-8 encoding. | It supports various encoding. | | It doesn’t support comments. | It supports comments. | | JSON files are easy to read as compared to XML. | XML documents are relatively more difficult to read and interpret. | | It does not provide any support for namespaces. | It supports namespaces. | | It is less secured. | It is more secure than JSON. | ## JSON Code vs XML Code Let’s see a sample JSON Code { "student": [ { "id":"01", "name": "Tom", "lastname": "Price" }, { "id":"02", "name": "Nick", "lastname": "Thameson" } ] } Let’s study the same code in XML 01 Tom Price 02 Nick Thameson ## Advantages of using JSON Here are the important benefits/ pros of using JSON: * Provide support for all browsers * Easy to read and write * Straightforward syntax * You can natively parse in JavaScript using eval() function * Easy to create and manipulate * Supported by all major JavaScript frameworks * Supported by most backend technologies * JSON is recognized natively by JavaScript * It allows you to transmit and serialize structured data using a network connection. * You can use it with modern programming languages. * JSON is text which can be converted to any object of JavaScript into JSON and send this JSON to the server. ## Advantages of using XML Here are significant benefits/cons of using XML: * Makes documents transportable across systems and applications. With the help of XML, you can exchange data quickly between different platforms. * XML separates the data from HTML * XML simplifies platform change process * Allows creating user-defined tags. ## Disadvantages of using JSON Here are cons/ drawback of using JSON: * No namespace support, hence poor extensibility * Limited [development tools](https://www.guru99.com/software-development-tools.html) support * It offers support for formal grammar definition ## Disadvantages of using XML Here, are cons/ drawbacks of using XML: * XML requires a processing application * The XML syntax is very similar to other alternatives ‘text-based’ data transmission formats which is sometimes confusing * No intrinsic data type support * The XML syntax is redundant Now, you can easily determine between XML or JSON which is better suitable for you. #### Summarize this post with: ChatGPT Perplexity Grok Google AI **Stay Updated on AI** **Get Weekly AI Skills, Trends, Actionable Advice.** ##### Sign up for the newsletter Subscribe for Free You have successfully subscribed. 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