We have often heard the term portal and website. Both of them are sometimes used interchangeably. However there is a difference between the two. Let’s find out all about portals and websites.

Usually a portal is used to describe a website that acts as an entry point or gateway to an array of services. It is obvious that all sites do this to a certain degree but a portal has a wide range of resources including search facility, directory of other sites, news, e-mail and lot more. For instance, Yahoo is a great example of a general portal. There can be industry specific or occupation specific portals. Also, many people refer to a portal to as a form of content management system such as PhpNuke.

A website is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. It 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. All publicly accessible websites collectively constitute the World Wide Web. A web page is a document, typically written in plain text interspersed with formatting instructions of Hypertext Markup Language (HTML, XHTML). The page may incorporate elements from other websites with suitable markup anchors.

We can also say that a website is an application deployed to a web server. A Servlet/JSP application has some level of interaction with the client that makes the experience interactive. A portal on the other hand builds heavily upon the dynamic nature of a normal website. Also, a portal has built in user functions and a fantastic ability for users to customize their own experience.

A portal finds the information for the user whereas on a website the user has to search for it. A portal displays all the content in one place while information is usually dispersed across a website. A portal uses a consistent framework for presenting the information in a standard way. The services available through the portal are all designed to fit within a standard portal framework. This consistency makes it easier to learn and use these services. On the other hand, there is a learning curve for users of typical website to get familiar with all the browsing capabilities. The information presented in a typical web site is usually general and intended for a wider audience.

Thus a portal is a complete environment for managing and integrating a large number of diverse applications and user repositories across an enterprise wide system. A single administrative interface makes it possible to manage users, applications, content, look, feel and navigation of an entire website. Centralized administration of a huge web based infrastructure is probably the most compelling reason for adopting the portal.

Then consult us at Biztech Consultancy. We are a prominent web development company specializing in php web development and web portal development. Our php developers have significant experience in carving out the best website designs.