title: WCF Service or Web API
body: <p>I'm going to be working on a project that involves a number of elements:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>ASP.NET MVC website</li>
  <li>C# console application</li>
  <li>iPhone App</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>To get all these separate applications talking to the database, my immediate thought was to use a WCF Service.</p>
  
  <p>However, I now need to add an API to the site to allow third parties to select, insert and update records from their own applications.</p>
  
  <p>In my mind, I would just create a separate RESTful service endpoint on my WCF Service which would be locked down using authentication and would only give access to certain methods.</p>
  
  <p>However, I've been reading today about the Web API feature in MVC 4 which is meant to be the latest thing for RESTful APIs?</p>
  
  <p>Should I be going along the line of using the Web API? or because my other applications need a web service, should I stick with a WCF Service?</p>