Overview
Let’s learn the differences between HTML and XML technologies in this tutorial. Both are markup languages, but they have distinct purposes and characteristics.
HTML
HTML, short for Hyper Text Markup Language, is the standard language for creating and designing web pages, websites, and applications. Its primary function is to describe the structure and content of a web page in a human-readable format. Web developers and programmers can create visually appealing, dynamic, and interactive websites with other technologies, such as CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) and JS (JavaScript).
XML
XML stands for eXtensible Markup Language. It’s a markup language that defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a human-readable and machine-readable format. It is a data interchange format that is being used for
transactions on the web.
Differences
Some of the key differences between HTML and XML are as follows:
| HTML |
XML |
| HTML is intended for humans. | XML is intended for both humans and machines. |
| HTML is a presentation language. | XML is data definition and representation language. |
| HTML is designed to display data and focus on how data looks. It’s used for creating web pages that web browsers can render. | XML is designed to store and transport data, focusing on what data is. It acts as a way to define and structure data. |
| HTML is designed to display data. | XML is designed for data interchange. |
| HTML is case insensitive. | XML is case-sensitive. |
| HTML tags are predefined. For example: <h1>, <p>, <a> , etc. Web browsers are built to understand these tags and render them accordingly. | XML tags are not predefined. XML allows users to define their own tags. XML is fully extensible. You can create new tags for specific needs. |
| HTML is a website technology.
Websites are designed using HTML technology. |
XML is a web service technology.
Web services based on SOAP and REST API are created using XML technology. |