XML vs JSON Comparison

XML vs JSON

Both store and exchange structured data. JSON is now the default for web APIs; XML remains common in enterprise and config files.

Same Data, Both Formats

// JSON
{ "name": "Sara", "age": 25, "skills": ["JS", "Python"] }

<!-- XML -->
<person>
  <name>Sara</name>
  <age>25</age>
  <skills><skill>JS</skill><skill>Python</skill></skills>
</person>

Comparison Table

Feature	JSON	XML
Verbosity	Compact	Verbose
Data types	Yes	All strings
Comments	No	Yes
Attributes	No	Yes
Parsing in JS	Native	Needs parser

When to Use Which

• JSON — web APIs, JS apps, config (most cases).
• XML — documents, SOAP, legacy systems, when you need attributes/namespaces.

FAQs

Which is faster?

JSON is generally faster to parse and smaller. More in our XML section.

Can I convert between them?

Yes — many libraries convert XML ↔ JSON.