| WEB API | MVC |
| WEB API is basically used to build HTTP services which reply only data. | We used MVC to build web application which reply as both data and views. |
| WEB API will returns data in different formats just like JSON, XML etc. | MVC will returns data basically in JSON format by using JSONResult. |
| WEB API will not support content negotiation and self-hosting. | MVC will supports content negotiation and self-hosting. |
| WEB API will very helpful in creating REST-full services. | In MVC we cannot able to build REST-full services. |
| WEB API will returns REST reponses. | MVC will return a view which is as HTML. |