In this article, HTML and XML shall be discussed in detail to understand the differences between them.
What is HTML?
Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is a programming language that displays data and describes a web page’s structure. Hypertext facilitates browsing the web by referring to the hyperlinks an HTML page contains. The hyperlink enables one to go to any place on the internet by clicking it. There is no set order to do so.
What is XML?
Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a programming language created by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). XML facilitates encoding documents, defined by a set of rules, in a format that can be read by both humans and machines. By using tags, XML defines the document structure, how it should be stored and transported. It enables the creation of web applications and web pages and is a dynamic language that transports data.
HTML vs XML: Key Differences
In a nutshell, the following table summarises some vital differences between HTML and XML.
| HTML | XML |
| Is a markup language. | Is a standard markup language that defines other markup languages. |
| Is not case sensitive. | Is case sensitive. |
| Doubles up as a presentation language. | Is not a presentation language nor a programming language. |
| Has its own predefined tags. | Tags are defined as per the need of the programmer. XML is flexible as tags can be defined when needed. |
| Closing tags are not necessarily needed. | Closing tags are used mandatorily. |
| White spaces are not preserved. | Capable of preserving white spaces. |
| Showcases the design of a web page in the way it is displayed on client-side. | Enables transportation of data from database and related applications. |
| Used for displaying data. | Used for transferring data. |
| Static in nature. | Dynamic in nature. |
| Offers native support. | With the help of elements and attributes, objects are expressed by conventions. |
| Null value is natively recognised. | Xsi:nil on elements is needed in an XML instance document. |
| Extra application code is not needed to parse text. | XML DOM application and implementation code is needed to map text back into JavaScript objects. |
![HTML Vs XML: Difference Between HTML and XML [2021]](https://i.morioh.com/2021/07/27/aff367ba.webp)