A quick definition of a static website
A static website is the type of website we all know and love. It is a website that starts with a home page located on the domain name. And, coming from the domain name are URLs that are the pages of your website.A quick definition of a dynamic website
A dynamic website starts with a domain name, but what you see on the domain name home page or subsequent pages is flexible. For example, if you sell household goods, and a certain customer logs in who likes certain products, you can have those products listed for discounts on the homepage.A quick definition of a responsive website
A responsive website will adapt the way it looks and the things it displays depending upon what web browser you use to view it. It adapts so that it suits the size of the screen and the type of screen that is being used. Due to the fact that it is adapting itself to suit a certain user, it is also a dynamic website.Static and non-static
A static website has a certain number of pages, whereas a dynamic website creates pages. Imagine that the static website has newspaper pages, and the dynamic website has several white pages that have different content projected onto them. The dynamic website is not actually made up of hundreds of pages (although it can be); it is just made up of pages that may change depending upon who is looking at them.Changing themes is possible
A dynamic website may alter its content to suit the person who visits, so it is possible to create different themes for different people. A static websites content and theme is always fixed.Dynamic websites take longer to load
A static website may load very quickly, if not instantly if you have broadband DSL. A dynamic website takes longer because it has to communicate with the server and decide what content to display on user’s browser. A dynamic website may use a database and generate the content using database queries. A static website never does anything like that.Content may change whilst in use
A dynamic website may change its content during the user’s session, whereas a static website would have to upload new content to do this. |
| Image Credits: www.symmetrixsystems.com |
A static website is more secure
This is because it is only providing one-way communication as the sever contacts the client. With dynamic sites there is information flowing both ways, which makes it a lot less secure.The pros and cons of a static website
A static website is pretty quick to build, it is cheap/economic to develop and usually cheap to host. Your content may become outdated, which means you have to update it more thoroughly, although not technically more often than a dynamic website.The pros and cons of a dynamic website
A dynamic website may be more functional for purpose if it is used right, such as for an eCommerce website to ensure that more targeting marketing meets the user. They can be easier to update, and you can use the new parcels of information you upload in order to attract more people. On the other hand, they are more costly to develop, host and do take longer to create.Static websites are easier to write
They only require HTML and CSS programming in order to make a good looking and functional website. With dynamic websites, you need to communicate with the server, which means using the servers programming language such as JSP, PHP, etc.You do not need as much programming experience in order to create a static website, in fact, a tutorial on YouTube and a word processor (preferably notepad) is all you need to create a web page. Dynamic websites need a lot of programming knowledge, as you have to deal with two-way communication, security, maintenance, and numerous other vital elements.
The web master advantage to dynamic websites
They are hard to develop, maintain, they take a long time to create and are expensive. This works as an advantage if you have one because not all of your competition is going to have one. Your competition could easily and cheaply create a static website in a day, but they cannot create a dynamic website so easily or cheaply.
Kate FunkAbout the Author:
Kate Funk is a freelance writer. She is mainly focusing on technology, gadgets and all the latest trends which are interesting for networking enthusiasts.
