Introduction
Websites are an integral part of any business. It helps businesses to represent their intentions and objectives in front of thousands of people. Websites are the best way to mark an online presence and reach out to your target audience.
People often get confused between websites and web portals, as both are great platforms, but used for entirely different purposes. Both are the two entirely different terms but, interlinked, as both, websites and web portals, are web-based. If we talk about websites, they are the collection of web pages, whereas, web portals are the gateway to the World Wide Web and offer a number of services.
Websites are used to reach a large number of people, and on the other hand, web portals limit the number of users and refine them to a specific group of users. In this blog, we are going to discuss what websites and web portals are, and how they are different from each other.
A Brief About: Websites and Web Portals
A website is generally an online representation of any business, but, a web portal is user-centric, i.e. users come to these portals to seek some sort of information or data. Both words seem similar, however, they hold a different meaning. Let us first understand the meaning of both, websites and web portals, individually and then talk about the differences between these two.
A Website
What is the first thing you do when looking for something over the internet? Like most people, you might also use Google, which is a website, to find your answer. In our day to day lives, we use a number of websites for multiple purposes like shopping, making online payments, using banking facilities, or lookout for any information. Not only for users, but the website is also, a great way for businesses, as it helps entrepreneurs to reach their target users and increase their online presence. Also, websites are a great way to increase sales and revenue. Businesses are always looking for tips to getting safe and secure websites developed, to prevent it from hacking and scale up their operations.
If we talk about the definition of a website then a website is the collection of web pages, which are interlinked together and are hosted from a single domain. A website is accessible via URL (Uniform Resource Locator), which organizes multiple web pages into a series that helps users to navigate through them. Mostly all websites have some important web pages like about us, contact us, the home page, etc.
Types of Websites
• Static Website
• Dynamic Website
• Interactive Website
Static Websites
Static websites are the ones that have web pages with fixed content. The content remains the same throughout until any changes are made to it. These websites have simple plain text, or some may also have rich media content. Whenever a user visits any static website, the same content is seen, irrespective of the time of visit.
Dynamic Websites
A dynamic website shows a variety of content, each time a user visits the website. These websites are updated automatically, depending on a set of parameters like templates, content, scripts, etc. So, every time a user visits a website, the content is renewed. These websites are created with the help of various software and languages like PHP, Python, JSP, etc.
Interactive Websites
Websites that communicate and interact with users, using them, are known as interactive websites. These websites are rich with appealing graphics and engaging content which helps retains the users. Users can post their comments or leave feedback on these websites. Interactive websites are a great way to connect with your users, and most businesses prefer these types of websites. They not only help you gauge user’s attention but also, are really helpful in boosting sales. The cost of developing these websites differs from that of static and dynamic ones.
What is a web portal?
As already discussed above, a web portal is a gateway to the World Wide Web that offers a number of services. In simpler terms, it is like a management system where companies or organizations can build, share, interchange information, or data which can be reused later. Unlike websites, web portals are private locations on the internet that can only be accessed through their unique URLs, and users are required to enter their login IDs and passwords.
Web portals are user-centric, and each user has its own password that can be used to access these portals. These portals have dynamic content, i.e. the content changes every time a user visits these portals. There are many web development companies that develop web portals based on your requirements.
Types of Web Portals
• Horizontal Web Portals
• Vertical Web Portals
Horizontal Web Portals
Also known as, Horizontal Enterprise Portals, these are the general portals that can be used as a common platform by several companies, to provide all kinds of information, which a user may require while looking for their services. Some of the common examples of horizontal web portals are government portals, educational portals, corporate portals, cultural portals, etc.
Vertical Web Portals
Also known as Vertical Enterprise portals or vortals, these are the user-centric portals, that provide information related specific company, interest, or services. A user looking for information about any specific topic or about a particular company can find these types of portals helpful. If a business wants to share something specific related to their services, they can opt for expert and experienced web development services, for getting vertical portals developed, as per their business requirements. College portals, tender and bidding portals, are a few examples of vertical portals.
Difference between a Website and Web Portal
Now coming to the differences between websites and web portals, both are quite different and can be differentiated in various aspects.
• A website focuses on attracting more users i.e. driving traffic whereas, a web portal is for specific users. It, in a way, restricts or limits the web traffic and allows only specific users to visit the portal. You may hire a web developer who can develop a feature-rich website and web portal that is in sync with your business goals.
• A website does not ask for a login ID and password from the users visiting them, but in a web portal, every time a user tries to open it, login credential is required. These credentials are user-specific and are different for every user.
• A website is publicly accessible i.e. anyone on the internet, who knows the URL, can visit the website and see its content, on the other hand, a web portal is privately accessible and only members of the portal can visit and see its content, using their login ID and password.
• The content on a website can either be dynamic or static, but if we talk about web portals, the content is dynamic and every time a user visits these portals, the content change.
Conclusion
As you can clearly see, both websites and web portals have their own benefits, and based on your business’s requirements you can opt for any of them. A website is a nice option to have when you are looking to create a public platform, which can represent your business on the internet and drive more and more users, from all over the world. You can hire web developers from a full stack development company, as they can help you with both front-end and back-end web development.
On the other hand, if you are looking for a private platform to target a specific kind of user, web portals are for you. They can be a great option if you want to have control over what users can see. For this, you may require some advanced user management features, and hiring an expert will surely help.
