This contrasts with complicated, multilayered XML specifications like those for web services or RDF.
An interesting question is how POX relates to XML Schema.
On the one hand, POX is completely compatible with XML Schema.
[citation needed] POX is complementary to REST: REST refers to a communication pattern, while POX refers to an information format style.
The primary competitors to POX are more strictly-defined XML-based information formats such as RDF and SOAP section 5 encoding, as well as general non-XML information formats such as JSON and CSV.