What are event-driven APIs? Understanding event-driven vs REST API interactions

In today’s digital landscape, APIs have become the backbone of business connectivity, and event-driven APIs are revolutionizing how systems interact in real time. But to understand why event-driven APIs are gaining such momentum, we need to first understand the different ways systems can interact with each other, and how these choices impact their effectiveness, resource usage, and capabilities.

To understand these different interaction patterns clearly, let’s explore them through a simple yet relatable example – planning lunch. This analogy will help illustrate why different API patterns serve different purposes, and when each might be the right choice for your integration needs.

See also: Types of APIs | Different APIs Explained With Concrete Examples

What’s the difference? Event-driven vs REST APIs

A few concise definitions may be helpful before we dive deeper. At their core, APIs are an interaction pattern; the way systems can interact with each other.

REST APIs work like a conversation where one side must always ask a question to get information. The consumer (client) sends a request, and the provider (server) responds with data.

Event-driven APIs, on the other hand, work like a notification system. Consumers subscribe to specific events and automatically receive updates when something happens.

Key differences:

• REST APIs require constant polling for updates
• Event-driven APIs push updates automatically when they occur
• REST is request-response based
• Event-driven is notification based

How do REST APIs work?

To understand it clearly, let’s use an equivalent of human interaction. Here is the “lunch” example.

Someone is asking a question: “What do we eat for lunch?” In REST API wording, the person asking is the “consumer,” and the person answering is the “provider.”

This human interaction matches exactly how a REST API works.

And it translates to the following:

Now let’s change the question: “Is lunch ready?”

As the answer is not the expected one, the consumer will continue until they finally receive the expected one. From a human perspective, this situation is quite annoying.

This mimics an API.

Computers don’t get annoyed, but it’s much more of a development effort on the consumer side and a waste of resources on the provider side, often more than they can provide. It doesn’t seem like the “right” solution.

As we all have entered into the data economy with an increasing abundance of data, the more data is produced the more processing and storage are required. In this context, saving resources everywhere possible matters.

REST API limitations

So, what is the difference between these two examples? It’s time!

The value of information decreases over time. But the decrease rate is not the same for all pieces of information.

What about our lunch example?

A menu can be relevant sometime before and even after lunch.

But when you are really hungry, nothing else matters than this “lunch is ready” notification. And once lunch starts, it no longer has any value. What matters is the notification.

There are plenty of examples of this kind, like the stock market, an inventory, or public transport. With a very high value, for a very short time.

A human could ask “When is lunch ready?”

It’s easy for a machine to provide the state of a resource such as “ready/not ready.” But predictions (“ready in 10 minutes”) are rare.

To be relevant, it has to be accurate. What if it is not ready at the estimated time? What if it is ready before? This is a very complex problem. And they’re far simpler ways to handle this.

If we could ask “Tell me when it’s ready,” the problem would be solved.

REST API interaction pattern implies the consumer always initiates interaction with the provider. That’s how it works. So, asking to “know when it’s ready” is not possible with the REST API. Guess what? This is exactly the value provided by event-driven APIs.

Event-driven architecture vs REST

Event-driven API interaction patterns differ from REST API. There are multiple forms, but we will focus on two popular items: Webhook and streaming.

Let’s go back to our “lunch” example. And use our “tell me when it is ready” interaction:

Do you see the difference? Now the provider initiates the event. The consumer has to define an endpoint (i.e. URL) that the provider can call to send the notification to the consumer. The consumer is notified as soon as the piece of information is ready.

This interaction type is referred to as Webhook and is the preferred style for asynchronous API.

This kind of interaction is the essence of Event-driven Architecture.

How event-driven APIs work

Let’s change the provider capability a little. Rather than answering “ready/not ready,” now the answer is the current preparation step.

It’s natural for a machine to tell a resource state.

This would allow another kind of interaction: API streaming.

And the API version:

The consumer receives each change in state in real-time. Often, Webhook is intended for machines, whereas streaming is intended for humans.

See also: How to Use Webhooks for Event-Driven Architectures with Amplify Platform

The issue with real-time information like the stock market is the number of consumers and the pressure on the backend. Certain mechanisms are necessary to provide consumers with the right information, closest to its event.

A note on streaming vs event-driven APIs

While streaming APIs and event-driven APIs are often mentioned together, they’re not exactly the same thing. Here’s why:

Event-driven APIs focus on the pattern of interaction – they notify consumers when specific events occur, like a status change or new data becoming available. Think of getting a notification when your food delivery status changes.

Streaming APIs, meanwhile, focus on the delivery method – they provide a continuous flow of data over a persistent connection. Think of watching a live video feed or monitoring real-time stock market data.

While all streaming APIs are inherently event-driven (as they need events to trigger the data flow), not all event-driven APIs use streaming. Some event-driven APIs might use simpler mechanisms like webhooks to notify consumers of changes.

Dive deeper: Are All Streaming APIs Event-Driven By Default and Vice Versa?

Bridging REST and event-driven APIs for a future-ready integration strategy

Modern EiPaaS solutions like Amplify Fusion enable organizations to leverage both REST and event-driven patterns effectively.

As customers expect better experiences and real-time data becomes crucial, event-driven architecture is becoming a necessity rather than a choice. The key to success lies in having a platform that can seamlessly bridge these different interaction patterns – allowing you to use REST APIs where they make sense and event-driven approaches where real-time updates are critical.

How do you fuse an API-First strategy with an event-driven architecture approach?

With a robust integration platform that supports both traditional and event-driven APIs, managed consistently through a single interface.

This flexibility ensures you can choose the right pattern for each specific use case while maintaining governance and visibility across your entire integration landscape.