Static vs Dynamic Website: Advantages & Disadvantages of Static Website

Website: A Collection of documents or files that you can access through the internet.

Another way a website is a collection of related web pages, including multimedia content, is typically identified with a common domain name &  published on at least one web server.

Usually, they look something like this - 

Now to be able to look at a website, people use a program called a browser the most popular browsers are Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari.

Now a browser's job is to make the code into something the user can look at and use.

But where the website comes from, how does your browser get the information for them.

Well, the documents or files that make up websites are stored or hosted on computers called servers.

The server job is to host the information file and make them available to be sent whenever the are requested when you tell your browser to look at a website it sends a request to the server where their website is hosted through the internet the server responds by sending the information for that page back to your browser which displays it so you can see it to coordinate all of this any device that connects to the internet is given a unique address this is called an IP address.

IP addresses usually look something like this -

Now for most people trying to remember an IP address isn't very easy so to help with these names that are easier to remember are used to substitute for the IP addresses these names are called domain names that way instead of trying to remember something like this. All you have to remember is a name like this - xyz.com. 

 

Now domain name are set up with companies called registrar's and the registrar's job is very simple when a request is sent out for information from a domain name the registrar make sure that request is sent to the IP address of the server where that website is actually stored than the server sends the information back so the browser can display it now in order for a website to function it has to have a place where it's stored which is referred to as a server a server can be anything from a computer in someone's house to a massive collection  of storage computer data center smaller website don't nee a lot of space and hundreds or even thousands of them can be stored on a single this is referred to as shared hosting on the other hand huge websites that get a lot of traffic may need lots of servers working together to keep up Google and Facebook for example have millions of servers all working together to provide all the information requested from their site most people setting up a new website will start by renting some space on a sever this space is called a hosting account . 

Once a person has set up a domain name for their site and a hosting account to host their website now it's time for them to actually create the website itself and remember websites themselves are just information you can access online.

 Types of Websites?

1. Static Website
2. Dynamic Website

Dynamic means - energetic, capable of action and/or change, or forceful.

Static means - stationary or fixed. 

What is a Static Website?

Any site that has fixed / stagnant content is usually written in HTML code, or A static web page contains web pages with fixed content. Each page is coded in HTML and Displays the same information to every visitor.

• Every page will have the code written separately, just as you see it on the web.
• Every page has to be saved separately on the server.
• Changes have to be made manually every time, and you need coding knowledge to make any and all changes.  

Advantages & Disadvantages of Static Website :

Advantages 

1. Easy to develop
2. Cheap to develop
3. Cheap to host

Disadvantages

1. Requires web development expertise to update the site.
2. Changes and updates are very time-consuming.
3. site not as useful for the user.
4. Content can get stagnant.

What is a Dynamic Website?

A site whose construction is controlled by an application server is processed by server-side scripts.

• The pages of the website are not coded and saved separately.
• The design/template (look and feel) is saved separately
• Corresponding content is saved separately.
• The pages are dynamically populated every time.

A Dynamic Website Structure 

1. A request to view a page will Dynamically populate the different sections of the site according to a template file.
2. Header 
3. Menu
4. Content
5. Footer

Advantages & Disadvantages of Dynamic Website :

Advantages 

1. Much more functional website.
2. Much easier to update.
3. Much Easier to add new content/pages.
4. New content brings people back to the site and helps in the search engines.
5. Can work as a system to allow staff of user to collaborate.

Disadvantages 

1. More expensive to develop.
2. Slower to develop.
3. Hosting cost a little more ( This might not be true now, because of great shared web hosting plans these days )