Recently, we had a comment on a YouTube video saying that a website and web app were the same thing. While we can understand the confusion, the difference is fairly notable. This article will help to clear up the confusion between the two and provide key characteristics that differentiate one from the other.
In today’s world, when you think of building a website, you often think about the same things: your domain name, hosting provider, and selecting from countless templates. But did you know that there is a huge difference between a website and a web application?
What’s a Website?
A Website is just an online presence for your company or business with basic information such as contact details and products/services offered.
What’s a Web Application?
A web application, also known as a web app, is an application that is accessed through the internet. Web applications are designed for more interactive tasks like surveying, shopping, playing games, or tracking fitness goals. They are developed for use on mobile devices and computers. Web applications are typically written in server-side languages like PHP or Ruby-on-Rails. This allows them to run on web servers and be accessed by users through their browsers.
What’s The Difference?
“What exactly is a web application?” you might be asking yourself. “Is it something like Facebook or Twitter?” On the surface, these may seem like similar concepts but in reality, they are very different.
A website can be thought of as an online presence for your company with basic information such as contact details and products/services offered to customers. A Web Application, however, has features that make it customizable for specific needs of the user – including check-out carts, interactive calendars, and other tools that make it more than just another site on the internet.
By definition, a web application is developed using front-end and back-end technologies while the website is developed with HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript; the latter being more of a static page.
Also, the design patterns for both the websites and web applications are different from each other. The design pattern would depend upon what you have to offer, the user interface (UI), and how you want the user to interact with it.
Now that you know the difference between a website and a web app, you can make a more informed decision on which one is best for your needs. If you’re searching for something more interactive and customizable, go with a web application – but if you’re just looking to establish an online presence for your business, a website will do the trick.
