Static vs. Dynamic Website

Have you ever thought of making a website? Or wondered about what type of website do you need? If yes, you have landed in the right place. I would rather say, this article is for you.

To begin with, let's get into the website first. In general, a website is a set of interlinked pages on the World Wide Web that are accessible online through a single domain name. And those individual pages interlinked with each other are called web pages. So, let's not get confused about web pages and websites.  But to your surprise, a website may just be a single webpage sometimes.

A website helps to represent an individual or a business digitally throughout the globe. So, making a website has become very common for an individual or business, these days. However, each website has its own purpose or subject matter; some are dedicated to entertainment, some to business, some to news, and so on. And all these are accessible through a web browser on different devices like desktops, laptops, mobile phones, etc.

Basically, websites can be divided into two types: static and dynamic.

Static Website

In general, static gives the meaning of fixed or stable and so is a static website. It’s a very basic type of website with fixed content. Here, the information does not change until it is done manually. So, it somewhat looks like printed pages. You do not require much knowledge of programming, designing and, database to build a static website. It is created with the help of client-side scripting languages like HTML and CSS.

A static website is generally preferred when you do not need to change the content frequently, such as blogs, personal websites, documentation, websites that provide information about an organization and its products or services, books, places, etc.

Advantages of a static website

•    •  Easy to create
•    •  It takes very little time and low cost to make a static website
•    •  Highly secure as compared to a dynamic website
•    •  A static website loads faster
•    •  Generally works well even in slow connections
•    •  Easy search engine indexing

Disadvantages of a static website

•    •  Requires technical knowledge to update
•    •  Less or non-interactive
•    •  Limited features and functions

Dynamic Website

The word “dynamic” itself makes it clear that the content in a dynamic website changes frequently. The content of a dynamic website may change automatically depending upon the user type, activity of the user, time zone, language, etc. A dynamic website is quite interactive  and professional in look as compared to a static one. It generates information in a web browser in real-time mostly with the combination of client-side scripting (HTML, CSS, and JavaScript) and server-side scripting (PHP, Python, ASP.NET, Java, etc.). For each request of the user, a dynamic site may generate different HTML.

There are different factors that help you know that the site you are browsing is a dynamic one. Change in layout as per the screen size of your device, mostly country-wise change in the language, presence of social media integration, recommendations and information tailored to your preferences, use of dynamic visuals and animations, etc. are few factors that represent a dynamic website. Most of the websites we see nowadays are dynamic ones.

Advantages of a dynamic website

•  •  Easy to update and manage
•  •  More functionality
•  •  Highly interactive
•  •  Smooth navigation and user-friendly

Disadvantages of a dynamic website

•  •  Takes more time, cost, and effort to create
•  •  Slow processing and loading as compared to a static website
•  •  Less secure than a static one

Differences between static and dynamic website

The differences between a static and dynamic website can be summarized as:

What we recommend?

Despite a few drawbacks, we (Web House Nepal), as a well-known web design and development company, highly recommend you a dynamic website for the long run. Creating a dynamic website may be expensive and time-consuming in the beginning, but considering its interactive feature, awesome user experience, diverse functionality, and very convenient update and management, choosing to make a dynamic website can be a smart decision.

However, it highly depends on the use and main purpose of the site. If you are planning to build an informative site where you do not need to change the information frequently, it’s better you choose the static one. But if you look for great functionality and features with chances of update or advancement in the future, you should go to a dynamic website.

Also read : Things you need to have on your website