What’s the difference between a web application and a website?

People from all around the world create, visit, and share URLs, on a daily basis. These URLs can locate either a “website” or a “web application.” However, distinguishing the two frequently-used terms, “website” and “web application,” is quite a problem for many people. Even if you look up the terms, you’ll see that the two definitions are very similar.

Here, we are going to discuss each of these terms separately and briefly.  After gaining a general understanding, we can compare them and tell the difference.

What do you do on a website? 

Imagine you go to a library to read about a particular subject. You’ll find some related books. You can read the books, but you can’t change what is written in them because you are not the writer, and the book is already published!

That’s precisely what happens on a website. You usually use a browser to search for a term in a search engine, such as Google, and in the results, websites appear which contain content related to that term. You read blogs or articles, watch, or download images and videos, or may subscribe to a newsletter, any additional option provided by the website, etc. We can simply conclude that websites are modern books or newspapers with advanced features! 

Read More: BEST WEB APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT COMPANIES WORLDWIDE

The important point is that you can’t change the content you see on a website because it is more informational.

What do you do in a web application? 

Web applications, on the other hand, usually provide services that users can access through web browsers. Depending on the type of web applications, they may help users to shop online, use social media such as Facebook, play games, etc. In order to use these features, you need to sign up and then sign into your account. Having an account gives you access to the services provided on the web application. 

Our experts at BSUPERIOR SYSTEM LTD. provide custom web application services for businesses in different industries. Check our portfolio to see a few examples of web applications. 

www.facebook.com is a well-known example of a web application. You sign into your account and see the posts you want, follow new people and find friends, like other people’s posts, and send them messages. The point is that you are the one in charge who determines what to be shown on the page, and you can even post something and upload data on the servers. In a nutshell, you decide what to do on the platform, and it is not predetermined.

The differences:

Although web applications and websites may seem similar, their distinctive features are as follows:

• Websites are more useful for business goals and advertising
• Web applications are more useful for providing services or selling products
• Websites usually have a static structure and fixed content.
•  Web applications have a dynamic structure, depending on the users’ level of access, and allow users to manage the content they see.

In summary, websites are informational and static in nature, while web applications are interactive and task-driven. Both websites and web applications are accessed through a browser, but they serve different purposes and have different features.

Now that you know the difference between websites and web applications, we hope you can decide better what you and your business need. You can contact us right now and book your free consultation session.