TL;DR REST API
A REST API, which stands for Representational State Transfer Application Programming Interface, is a standardised way for software systems to communicate with each other over the internet using HTTP requests. REST APIs use familiar HTTP methods like GET to retrieve data, POST to create data, PUT to update data, and DELETE to remove data. They return responses in structured formats, most commonly JSON, which makes them easy to consume by any programming language or platform. REST APIs power the connections between almost every modern web service, from mobile apps pulling data from a server to third party integrations passing information between platforms. WordPress itself has a built-in REST API that allows developers to interact with content programmatically. If you are running an application or service that exposes a REST API, CloudSonic's API hosting plans are built for the uptime, speed, and security that production APIs demand. See also WebSocket for use cases that require real time two-way communication rather than request-response patterns.
How a REST API Works
A REST API works by exposing a set of endpoints, each represented by a URL, that clients can interact with using standard HTTP methods. A GET request to an endpoint retrieves data. A POST request creates new data. A PUT or PATCH request updates existing data. A DELETE request removes data. The server processes the request, interacts with its database or business logic, and returns a response, typically formatted as JSON. Each request is stateless, meaning the server does not retain any memory of previous requests from the same client. Any state that needs to persist between requests, like authentication, must be included in each request itself, usually as a token in the HTTP header. This stateless design makes REST APIs scalable because any server in a pool can handle any request without needing shared session state. The WordPress REST API follows this pattern, exposing endpoints for posts, pages, users, and other content types that developers can interact with programmatically.
# Get a list of recent posts from the WordPress REST API
curl -s https://example.com/wp-json/wp/v2/posts?per_page=3 | jq '.[0] | {id, slug, title: .title.rendered, date}'
# Output:
# {
# "id": 42,
# "slug": "hello-world",
# "title": "Hello World",
# "date": "2026-09-01T10:00:00"
# }
# Create a post using basic auth (use application passwords in production)
curl -s -X POST https://example.com/wp-json/wp/v2/posts \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-u admin:your-application-password \
-d '{"title":"New Post","status":"publish","content":"Post content here"}'
[
{
"id": 42,
"date": "2026-09-01T10:00:00",
"slug": "getting-started-with-cloudsonic",
"status": "publish",
"title": {
"rendered": "Getting Started with CloudSonic"
},
"excerpt": {
"rendered": "A beginner’s guide to setting up your first managed WordPress hosting environment.
"
},
"link": "https://example.com/getting-started-with-cloudsonic/",
"author": 1,
"featured_media": 18
}
]
Why a Reverse Proxy Matters for Your Website
Running your application directly exposed to the internet without a reverse proxy means your application server handles every concern simultaneously: SSL termination, static file serving, compression, security filtering, and application logic. This is inefficient and insecure. A reverse proxy like Nginx takes over the concerns that do not require application logic, serving static files at high speed directly from disk without invoking PHP, handling SSL termination so the application server only deals with unencrypted traffic internally, compressing responses before sending them to clients, and caching rendered output so repeat requests never reach the application at all. This division of responsibility makes the overall system significantly faster and more efficient. It also adds a security layer because the application server is never directly accessible from the internet. Any request that reaches the application has already been filtered by the reverse proxy and, in CloudSonic's case, by Cloudflare Enterprise at the network edge before that.
