Websites, portals and web applications are an integral part of any business. They help companies present their intentions and objectives to thousands of people. These platforms are the best way to establish an online presence and reach your target audience.
It is usual to confuse Websites, Portals and Web Applications, as both are great platforms, but used for purposes totally different. Although different, they are interlinked, as both websites and portals are online channels.
The websites are used to reach a large number of people, on the other hand, portals are targeted at a specific group of users.
A website is usually an online representation of any company, whereas a web portal is user-centric, i.e. users access these portals in search of some kind of information or data.
We use various websites for various purposes, such as shopping, making online payments, using banking services or searching for information. They are a business lever as they help brands reach their target audience and increase their online presence. In addition, websites are a great way to increase sales and revenue.
If we stick to the definition of a website, it is the collection of web pages that are interlinked and hosted on a single domain. A website can be accessed via a URL (Uniform Resource Locator), which organizes various web pages into a series that helps users navigate. Almost all websites have some important, predefined pages: brand information, presentation of the offer, contact details, etc.
A web portal is a gateway to the World Wide Web that offers a range of services. In simplest terms, it is like a management system where companies or organizations can build, share, exchange information or data that can be reused later. Unlike websites, web portals are private places on the Internet that can only be accessed through unique URLs, and users are required to enter their login information.
Web portals are user-centric and everyone has their own password, which can be used to access these portals. These have dynamic content, i.e. the content changes whenever a user visits these portals.