SOAP also has other stuff : proper handling of binary (MTOM), WSDL/XSD contracts are enforced and XSD is a very powerful, standardized language to express contr

SOAP also has other stuff : proper handling of binary (MTOM), WSDL/XSD contracts are enforced and XSD is a very powerful, standardized language to express contract which in turn allow you to share the contract. When you're working across organisation/institution borders that's very helpful. REST is not there yet. If I had to communicate each little gotchas of my REST API each time, that'd be really tough. So for me the power of SOAP is how it helps me to share interface contracts in clear, precise ways. Moreover, SOAP also have the WS-I profiles for security related stuff and that is quite advanced too. SOAP is nice in enterprise setting I guess.