What s the difference between a web site and a web application

Question

I m stumped trying to come up to a difference between a website and a web application for myself  As I see it  a web site points to a specific page and a web application is more of some sort of  portal  to content and information    But where I m stuck is that a web application is still viewed through a browser  is it not   and a website can still view content dynamically  making the line between web site and application pretty gray   For instance  does a web site using ASP NET or AJAX etc become a web application because it can retrieve data dynamically and asynchronously or would a website using PHP and a CMS be more of a web application because it forms the pages on request  based on the request of the client and its content in its databse   Or maybe I m totally wrong here - what differentiates between a web application and a website

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We know what is a  site  and  application   so all we got left is The Web  Now  a web application may be a part of a whole website  A website is comprehended of web applications  Though usually you ll see that a website has only one web application   For instance  you have an iPhone device  compared to a website  which may include different applications  playing music  videos  web browser etc

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The technical difference according to two features   1  Where the  work  is done  2  What is being transferred to from the server  Web app 1  The  work  is done at the browser  JavaScript  2  Data is being transferred from to the server In comparison  Faster  Website 1  The  work   most of it  is done at the server 2  Rendered pages  data   UI  are being transferred from the server In comparison  Easier SEO

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I m not sure if there s an absolute authoritative answer to this  but you may look upon it as a distinction of what happens when the request hits the webserver  The request may either be served by having the server return a file that s already been made  static content   or it can pass the request to an application that generates the respone sent back to the browser  dynamic content    Both types will be called a website  but only the ones that have an application generate the contents will be called a web application   How the application is written is of less concern  It may be ASP  PHP  Ruby  JavaScript or even C or C

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I say a website can be a web application  but more often a website has multiple web applications  the relationship between the two is one of composition  website composed of applications      a dating site might have a photo upload web application  a calendar one so you can mark when you re dating who    These applications are embedded throughout the website

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A web application is a software program which a user accesses over an internal network  or via the internet through a web browser  An example of one of the most widely used web applications is Google Docs  which facilitates most of the capabilities of Microsoft Word  it   s free and easy to use from any location    A web site  on the other hand  is a collection of documents that are accessed via the internet through a web browser  Web sites can also contain web applications  which allow visitors to complete online tasks such as  Search  View  Buy  Checkout  and Pay

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A web application is a website in the same way that a square is a rectangle   The application part is the model-controller combo  The web part  the view  is why it qualifies as a website   Something that is only a website and not a web application is simply missing the dynamic aspect   Of course  it can be difficult to decide on how much server-side processing is required to qualify it as a web application  Probably when it has a data store   Thus  you have the primary role of webapps confused  A website s primary role is to inform  A web app s primary role is to inform using dynamic content  the do something part

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Web applications are dynamic websites   According to wikipedia  website is the abstract term of this paradigm      A website  also written as web site  or simply site  is a set of   related web pages typically served from a single web domain  A website   is hosted on at least one web server  accessible via a network such as   the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet   address known as a uniform resource locator  URL   All publicly   accessible websites collectively constitute the World Wide Web   Source  http   en wikipedia org wiki Website    Therefore  the Web Application is a type of website regardless of its purpose  in fact  a dynamic website  but the website is not indeed a web application   In my point of view  all modern websites are web applications  including CMS s  Does anyone in the world still writes manual static html files  I don t think so  Even though  some websites have few static pages  but if they were created dynamically via a CMS  then it is definitely a CMS web application   Read more    http   en wikipedia org wiki Web application  http   en wikipedia org wiki Website

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You can charge the customer more if you claim it s a web application     Seriously  the line is fine  Historically  web apps were the ones with code and or scripts  in Perl CGI  PHP  ASP  etc   on the server  and sites were the ones with static pages  Currently  everyone and their uncle s cat are running forums  guestbooks  CMS - that s all server code   Another distinction is along the subject matter lines  If it s a line-of-business solution  then it s an app  If it s consumer oriented - they call it a site  Although technology-wise  it s more or less the same

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A web-application is an application that is hosted on the internet  It can have a front-end or user-interface on a web-site   Hope that helps

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Based on a general research and understanding   Almost  Everything that can be accessed via a browser is actually called a  Web application  now these days  Even your internet router at home is a web application that uses the HTTP protocol to access the application  i e the one that  interacts  with you   Yes  there are lots of websites that do  Nothing  except showing you stuff  But the age we are living in  everything operates on the basis of web application  Natwest PLC bank has got a website where you can go and find out things that natwest offer as a consumer high-street bank  However   1  You can create your online banking account - Web application 2  View  amend details on your personal stuff - web application 3  Manage money - Web application 4  Deal shares stocks - Web application  Another good example is Fidelity com  as quoted in many other examples on the web    I m going to have to argue and say that there are two answers   1  If your purpose is simply to inform your audience with some contents that will never demand any interaction whatsoever  website is your answer  Then it is not a web application   2  If you are living in the current modern world i e  will have a personal site  allow people to see some all none of your special stuff  protect yourself from people bots etc   web application and websites are no different

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Web application is better in performance as you are publishing a precompiled code  the code is 100  compiled successfully   Meanwhile web site is better in maintainability as you can change the code easily and the changes will take effect immediately without any build  in this case the page is going to be compiled when it is called for the first time which means it might cause compilation error or crashes in your page whenever it is being called  Each one has its own pros and cons  Check the difference here  it is helpful to understand more about both

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It s like whisky and scotch  all web apps are web site  but not all web sites are web app  A web application or Rich Internet Applications is a web site that does more than displaying content  it has a business logic  It   s intended for user interactions  performing actual business functions  Compared to web sites  i e  blogs and news sites  web apps provide a richer user experience   The use case of an application is always to DO something with it     Christian Heilmann  Principal Developer Evangelist at Mozilla Corporation

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Semantics       generally a website contains static HTML pages and a web application performs some type of work   For example  a website for a realtor may give information about the realtor  where a web application for the realtor may list current properties and manage the contact information for the realtor themselves

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Both are  websites    sites on the web     So I would suggest that the question is easier to answer if worded in a different way   What is the difference between a web-site which transforms data or information in a significant way  according to the point of view of some specific  user  or  customer  and a web-site that does not    From that it s easier to see that what we call a web-application is a system at a site on the web which takes input  acts on that input in a way that transforms it and produces output of value to some particular customer or user     The other thing is more like a poster or brochure  At least to most of its audience  In the same way that a brochure may have been created using DTP software  a brochure site may still be managed via some sort of CMS or blogging software   To the owner of that site  the CMS is the web-application  but to the general public the same site may be seen as a simple brochure   or  website

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There is no real  difference    Web site is a more anachronistic term that exists from the early days of the internet where the notion of a dynamic application that can respond to user input was much more limited and much less common  Commercial websites started out largely as interactive brochures  with the notable exception of hotel airline reservation sites    Over time their functionality  and the supporting technologies  became more and more responsive and the line between an application that you install on your computer and one that exists in the cloud became more and more blurred    If you re just looking to express yourself clearly when speaking about what you re building  I would continue to describe something that is an interactive brochure or business card as a  web site  and something that actually  does something that feels more like an application as a web app   The most basic distinction would be if a website has a supporting database that stores user data and modifies what the user sees based on some user specified criteria  then it s probably an app of some sort  although I would be reluctant to describe Amazon com as a web app  even though it has a lot of very user-specific functionality   If  on the other hand  it is mostly static  html files that link to one another  I would call that a web site   Most often  these days  a web app will have a large portion of its functionality written in something that runs on the client  doing much of the processing in either javascript or actionscript  depending on how its implemented  and reaches back through some http process to the server for supporting data   The user doesn t move from page to page as much and experiences whatever they re going to experience on a single  page  that creates the app experience for them

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This is totally personal and subjective  but I d say that a website is defined by its content  while a web application is defined by its interaction with the user  That is  a website can plausibly consist of a static content repository that s dealt out to all visitors  while a web application depends on interaction and requires programmatic user input and data processing   For example  a news site would be a  website   but a spreadsheet or a collaborative calendar would be web  applications   The news site shows essentially the same information to all visitors  while the calendar processes individual data   Practically  most websites with quickly changing content will also rely on a sophisticated programmatic  and or database  backend  but at least in principle they re only defined by their output  The web application on the other hand is essentially a program that runs remotely  and it depends fundamentally on a processing and a data storage backend

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A website might just be static content - a web application would have dynamic content   It is a very fuzzy line

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Both function and perform similarly  but still differ in following ways   Web application    We can t include C  and VB page in single web application  We can set up dependencies between multiple projects  Can not edit individual files after deployment without recompiling  Right choice for enterprise environments where multiple developers work unitedly for creating testing and deployment    Web site    Can mix VB and C  page in single website  Can not establish dependencies  Edit individual files after deployment  Right choice when one developer will responsible for creating and managing entire website

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Websites are primarily informational  In this sense  http   cnn com and http   php net are websites  not web applications    Web applications primarily allow the user to perform actions  Google Analytics  gmail  and jslint are web applications   They are not entirely exclusive   A university website likely gives information such as location  tuition rates  programs available  etc  it will likely have web applications that allow teachers to manage grades and course materials  applications for students to register for and withdraw from courses  etc

[web] What's the difference between a web site and a web application?

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