SOAP API Testing Made Simple
While REST APIs and JSON responses are dominant in the API space today, SOAP might seem like a relic of the past; in fact, it is still relevant and a great candidate for a SOAP API type of project. SOAP is still considered the gold standard in many areas, from banking systems to healthcare applications, particularly where secure, contract-driven communication is concerned.
In this blog, we will discuss everything you need to know about SOAP API Testing: what it is, why it continues to be important, types of testing, tools, and the 2025 best practices.
What is SOAP?
SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) is a protocol for exchanging structured information in XML. It is platform independent and language independent, and typically uses HTTP or SMTP as its transport protocol. Unlike REST, SOAP uses WSDL (Web Services Description Language) to declare the service contract or input/output.
Its rigidness follows a strict and standard format for messages, which is perfect for enterprise-level applications, where security, consistency, and reliability are all desired.
What is SOAP API Testing?
SOAP API Testing is the process of verifying that a SOAP web service:
Returns valid XML responses
Abides by its WSDL contract
Handles errors properly via <Fault>
Performs well under load
Maintains security and interoperability
Because SOAP APIs are so reliant on schemas and formal definitions, testing a SOAP API requires more precision, but typically gives much greater assurance of correctness than with REST APIs.
Types of SOAP API Testing
Functional Testing: Functional testing validates that the API operates as intended and that everything works properly. Testers invoke the SOAP requests with input parameters and verify that their responses correctly present their defined output from the WSDL, edge cases, error codes, invalid data formats, as well as any logic workflows to verify that each function from authentication to data retrieval behaves properly.
Load testing: SOAP APIs can be used with large amounts of data. SOAP APIs process multiple users, and load testing simulates real usage and see how the API or service handles this stress. This will include line speeds, throughput, resource usage, and system resource & response based on load or concurrent user load. This is valuable to identify performance bottlenecks or crashes before in production.
Security Testing: Since SOAP APIs deal with data-sensitive applications, security is non-negotiable. Security Testing confirms that the API is protected from XML injection, unauthorized access, and data leaks. It also confirms the implementation of WS-Security features and verifies some acceptable baselines, such as required message encryption, digital signatures, and authentication tokens.
Interoperability Testing: SOAP API is intended to be interoperable across platforms, so it is essential to test how the service works in different environments - Java, .NET, PHP, and with mobile platforms. Interoperability testing ensures that the service continues to be available and usable regardless of what tech stack is consuming it.
Regression Testing: The risk of breaking something when adding a new feature or fixing a bug is always present. Therefore, regression tests ensure that all of the previously passing test cases continue to pass after assorted changes. This is especially valuable for confidence and stability.
What is a SOAP Client?
A SOAP client is the application that allows you to create requests and then use those requests to communicate with a SOAP-based web service. SOAP clients will handle formatting your requests in XML, will make the request using some method of transferring the request (e.g., HTTP, SMTP, etc.), and will handle parsing the XML response.
SOAP clients allow developers and testers to verify that web services are functioning correctly by being able to generate requests using different inputs, different headers, and different configurations. SOAP clients are a useful test tool to ensure that a service conforms to its WSDL (Web Services Description Language) contract to meet user expectations based on different scenarios.
SOAP vs REST: Which Should You Be Testing?
If your environment demands formal validation, secure communication, and complex transactions, SOAP still wins.
Why SOAP API Testing Is Important?
Testing SOAP APIs involves validating that your API can reliably and securely share data across platforms. In situations like finance and healthcare, this matters quite a bit. SOAP API testing also validates the XML payload, hence ensuring validity, as well as the integrity of structured messages, and allows for early detection of any performance or integration concerns. Adopting this practice improves all systems around scalability, compliance, and engineering stability.
Compared to REST APIs, which are much less stringent and allow for multiple error formats for requests, SOAP relies on stricter rules. A SOAP request may be structured incorrectly, and a change to the request structure may cause the service to become unavailable. Testing is recommended to capture edge cases, stay consistent and stable in integrations, and also to validate that the software functions the same throughout all of the environments.
In short, if the data you are sending is sensitive, or if you are responsible for high-stakes data with possible serious repercussions should the software fail at a critical point, proper and effective SOAP API testing is critical, and not just a best practice.
How to Test SOAP APIs?
Testing SOAP APIs does not have to be difficult. Below is a very simple process to get started:
Understand the WSDL: Look through the operations it has, and which inputs/outputs it defines.
Create the XML Requests: Use the WSDL to create your XML payload with all the needed elements.
Send the Request to the Endpoint: Use a tool (usually SoapUI, Postman, or Keploy) to send the message.
Validate the Response: Validate that the structure is valid, validate that the data is valid, validate that you receive the expected status code (usually 200 or 500), and check for any SOAP faults.
Automate the Tests: An automatic test in Keploy is when the tests are successful and used by the library moving forward.
Regression Test: Be certain that changes to the code base do not break already implemented functionality.
Measure Performance & Load: Use JMeter or anything bundled with Keploy to simulate what an end user would perform.
Tools Used for SOAP API Testing
Choosing the right tool is essential for successful and efficient SOAP API testing. Here are some commonly used tools:
SoapUI
A standalone, open-source graphical user interface tool for SOAP (and REST) testing. Allows functional, security, and load testing, while offering WSDL import and automatic schema validation.
Apache Axis2
A Java-based framework that is both a building platform and a testing platform for SOAP services. Typically used more programmatically for integration testing.
Postman
Typically for REST, but able to handle SOAP when users write and organize their own XML requests. No automatic WSDL support.
JMeter
Good for testing load and performance on SOAP services, but users must individually write their request XML to test effectively.
Katalon Studio
A no-code/low-code automation tool with a wide array of options for testing SOAP API. Recommended for testers who prefer their SOAP API tests without writing code.
Benefits of SOAP
While it is legacy technology, SOAP still has advantages for consideration, especially for businesses. Here is why soap can still be beneficial:
1. Standards: SOAP is a W3C XML standard that delivers a good, standard process.
2. Security (WS-Security): SOAP has some built-in security features, such as encryption and digital signatures. This allows the use of SOAP for financial and healthcare systems.
3. Stateful Operations: REST methodology is stateless, but as a protocol, SOAP can perform stateful operations between requests (e.g., keep a user logged in).
4. ACID Transactions: SOAP has stronger support for transactional operations, allowing for better use of the protocol in complex, multi-step processes.
5. Protocol Neutrality: While it is commonly utilized over HTTP, SOAP can be transported using other protocols, such as SMTP, TCP, or JMS, which supports greater flexibility when using different infrastructures.
How Keploy Supercharges API Testing
API ecosystems today are rarely just SOAP or just REST; they’re a mix of REST, SOAP, and sometimes gRPC. Traditional SOAP testing tools like SoapUI handle schema validations and WSDL imports well, but they often fall short when teams need mocking, replay, and integration testing at scale.
That’s where Keploy steps in as a modern API testing tool:
For API Testing, Keploy captures actual API traffic, requests, and responses, and applies these to create detailed API test cases and mocks. It dramatically cuts down on the drudgery of having to write tests from scratch. It really "learns" based on how your application is behaving in actual conditions or from your OpenAPI specifications to develop applicable test cases.
Step 1:Application Setup: Navigate to the Keploy web console and create a new application or select from sample use cases.
Step 2: Set up your base test endpoint URL – This is the API endpoint that Keploy will use to generate tests. It can be any URL, whether it’s hosted or running on localhost.
Step 3: Input Sources: Enhance test generation by providing:
cURL commands (The more cURL commands you provide, the more accurate the generated test cases will be)
Postman collections via upload (Optional, if you’d like to include them)
OpenAPI/Swagger schema for comprehensive API understanding
Step 4: AI-Powered Generation: Click "Generate Tests" to trigger Keploy's Generative AI engine, which combines all your inputs to create comprehensive test suites.
Step 5: Test Execution – Run the generated tests and analyze the reports to see which scenarios pass and which fail. The best part about Keploy API Testing is that it runs directly against your application, validating whether the generated test cases are working or not. By the final phase, you’re left with only the test cases that are valid for your application, plus the edge cases.
You are all set! Your test cases have been generated
Whether you’re working with REST, or gRPC, Keploy ensures your APIs are tested the way they actually behave in production.
Key Concepts of SOAP APIs
Being able to work efficiently with SOAP APIs requires some basic knowledge of the following foundational concepts:
Envelope: This is the top element of the XML that contains the entire SOAP message.
Header: This is where you would find metadata and optional information such as authentication, routing, etc.
Body: This is the actual payload, which has the request or response data.
WSDL (Web Services Description Language): This is your contract, which essentially tells you what operations are available to you, the input and output parameters for each operation, and the structure of the messages.
Schemas (XSD): define the structure of the XML, so that everything is validated and well-formed before you send it.
All of the above must work together to ensure that any message a system sends to another system is fully formed, validated, and can be understood, regardless of the platform or the programming language.
Common Challenges in SOAP API Testing
SOAP’s complexity is both a strength and a drawback. Here are a few challenges testers typically face:
Verbose XML: SOAP request messages are an overly complicated data structure, and the odds of a malformed request are relatively higher.
Schema Validation: Requests that are not processed successfully are generally due to schema inconsistencies or incorrect data types.
Managing WSDL: Having an up-to-date WSDL and reconciling between environments can be exhausting.
Tool Interoperability: Not all tools support all features of SOAP (WS-Security, attachments, etc.).
Error Resolution: Errors triggered for SOAP faults can sometimes be difficult to discover or diagnose if the app does not expose headers and schemas.
This is why tools like Keploy (automatically generate test cases from traffic) can save you a considerable amount of time and effort by eliminating trial and error.
Best Practices for SOAP API Testing
SOAP APIs Testing Best Practices When testing SOAP APIs, remember the following:
Always Validate Against WSDL: You should always validate your requests against what is defined in the service contract.
Always Validate Against XML Schema: When testing, remember to validate every message to catch any format problems early on.
Payload: Test with realistic payloads, including edge cases, edge data, and null.
Automate If Possible: If you can automate tests, you should use tools such as Keploy that allow you to simply capture the API traffic data and turn it into reusable tests.
Security Testing: When testing, don't only check functionality and features. Test for other vulnerabilities, such as injections and unauthorized access.
Mock External Dependencies: Use mocking if your API interacts with any external systems. Keploy does this automatically by mocking any third-party dependencies for you smartly.
Conclusion
REST APIs have taken over development of late, but SOAP maintains a strong stance for secure, compliant, structured, and reliable communication, especially in sectors that cannot afford non-compliance. APIs are more than a simple sequence of XML requests over HTTP; the base requirements involve validating the structure of services, processing security, and ensuring the durability of the system over the long haul.
With Keploy, you can simplify even your most complex testing workflows and reduce time in your QA pipeline, without creating new tests from scratch!
FAQs
1. What’s the main difference between SOAP and REST API testing?
SOAP relies on XML-based protocols with strict standards, while REST uses lightweight JSON and HTTP methods. Testing SOAP often involves schema validation, whereas REST focuses more on response payloads and endpoints.
2. Can I use Keploy with my existing SOAP testing tools?
Yes, you can. For SOAP-specific validation, use tools like SoapUI. Pairing them with Keploy lets you ensure that REST services (often added to SOAP-heavy systems) are tested with auto-generated cases, giving you complete coverage across your stack.
3. Do SOAP APIs support JSON?
No, SOAP APIs do not support JSON natively. SOAP uses XML by design. If you require JSON, you may want to look into REST APIs.
4. Why is WSDL important in SOAP?
It is the blueprint of your API. If you do not have a WSDL, then clients will not know how to interact with your service.
5. What are some common mistakes to avoid while testing SOAP APIs?
Some things to watch out for are ignoring changes to the WSDL, not getting schema validation correct, not testing faults (error responses), and hardcoding test data. It's also important to validate the entire SOAP envelope (including headers) and test different datasets.
