What is the difference between a database and a website? In general, both terms refer to information storage, yet, they have a significant technological difference between database and website, as I will discuss.
So, in this article, we will try to understand both the terms, including questions like can a website be a database or vice versa? Let explore this fantastic article on what is the difference between a database and a website. Meanwhile, Read what is the difference between a blog and a website.
What Is A Database? What Does Database Mean?
A database is a collection of structured information and big data, including journals, magazines, newspapers, etc., and is regulated by a database management system (DBMS). With the use of data tables, the database’s data can be conveniently accessed, maintained, reviewed, regulated, and organized.
The database not only includes generic information such as the website but also stores the author, article title, publication, publisher of information, and when the information was published.
Data is stored in a database with the help of SQL (Standard Query Language), which is a standard language for collecting, processing, and retrieving information. In other words, SQL organizes data before it is actually recorded, whereas DBMS handles all data when a user searches for it.
What Is A Website?
The term “website” is highly ubiquitous and frequently used by netizens even though they perceive a database as a website. A website is a set of web pages stored and published on a Content Management System (CMS). Websites can be authored by a single publisher or a team of authors, and access does not demand any special permission.
The cornerstone of a website is its web pages, which are typically produced in plain text and formatted according to the Hypertext Markup Language’s structuring rules (HTML, XHTML). You can read more about a website in our previous post on how does a website work. Let’s explore the difference between a website and a database.
What Is The Difference Between A Database And A Website?
Now you understand what is a website and database which helps you knowing what is the difference between a database and a website. Usually, websites are dynamic in nature where data is frequently updated and includes routine information like news, banking information, entertainment news, etc.
On the other hand, a database is much more static in nature and is typically utilized for massive data files such as research and scholarly publications. Also, databases are considered more authentic than that website content because the editors have verified the validity and reliability of the materials.
You can access any information from a database that is available online and offline. Even the database is completely free to use, while websites are available online only and might have some content payable due to a premium tag.
Website Vs. Database Comparison Table
Let’s understand what is the difference between a database and a website with a detailed comparison table:
Database | Website |
| Large collection of organized information. | Organized set of web pages. |
| Can be available online and offline as well. | Available only online sources. |
| Produced by professionals or experts. | Published by any individual authors. |
| Collection of books, journals, magazines, etc. | Collection of dynamic and routine information. |
| Widely used for research and academic work. | Widely used for daily news/information. |
| Information is cited by expert authors and publishers. | Information can be published by anyone on the internet. |
| Highly authentic data. | Maybe incorrect information published. |
| Free from advertisements. | Indeed, Ads are displayed. |
| Only exact information accessed what you are looking for. | Billions of pages available even result in what you are not searching for. |
| The available information is entirely free to use as various libraries pay for this. | Most websites are free to access except for premium content. |
How Do I Know If Information Is From Website Or Database?
While you know what is the difference between a database and a website but how do you know if something is a database or a website? However, it is extremely tough to determine if accessed information is from a website or database because most websites nowadays use databases.
Yet, the above-discussed differences between website and database can help you to identify the content. The distinguishable key points are cited content, publisher name, publication date, etc. The database address and SQL network make up a database name.
Because you’re browsing basicwebguide as an information website, you’re already conversant with a website. In contrast, databases are usually full of tables and charts to store data which makes them easy to distinguish. Also, in a database, each information and entity has a significant relationship with the other entity.
Can A Website Be A Database?
A database is essentially a data storage platform, and a website does not need one unless it has a lot of data or is a commercial portal. Although your website may not have or necessitate a database, WordPress, as well as other CMS, do have databases that store millions of web pages.
Whenever you publish a new post on WordPress, you may be noticed it or not; it stores on the WordPress database in the folder wp_posts. It has columns for the title, the article’s timestamp, revisions history, the post’s body, any excerpts, and meta descriptions.
So, in other words, a website can be a database but not necessarily. The website’s HTML codes don’t directly interact with the database but are associated with the CMS. Furthermore, keeping a database involves storing content indefinitely, which is what most websites do not do, nor do they have specialists to organize the information.
Is Google A Database? What Database does Google use?
What database does Google use? The database used by Google is Bigtable which is a decentralized storage solution for formalized data management that can expand to large volumes of data. Apart from Bigtable, Google also uses MySQL and Oracle, which are extensively used for applications.
Bigtable divides tables into rows and stores them as tabs in terms of managing large tables. BigTable is based on the Google File System (GFS), which is used to maintain records and database files as a backup. SSTables, a Google-proprietary file type for storing table data, may be reliably stored with GFS.
Final Thoughts
It is all about what is the difference between a database and a website, and I hope you enjoyed this article. In this detailed and information-rich article, we have discussed everything about databases and websites.
We discussed what is database, what is website, and how a website and database are different. A database is a collection of structured information which is managed by experts, whereas a website is a set of web pages that anyone on the internet publishes.
If you still have any doubts or queries regarding the website and database, kindly let me know through the comment section.
