Browsing the web you saw HTML appears so many times. By now you probably know it is some type of a code used for websites. Then you see HTML5 and you get confused. Anyway, now we will answer you to the main question and help you understand the major differences between HTML and HTML5.
What is HTML?
HTML is an acronym for Hyper Text Markup Language and it is used to the designed website. There are two main elements here. The hyperlink is used for links between the pages and the parts of a website. Basically, it is the same type you can use in Microsoft Word or Front Page and the purpose is clear. Once a user clicks on a hyperlink, he will be taken to another page.
The second element of HTML is markup text. It is used to define all text documents of the website and to create a structure. This is a bit more complicated to understand and you should remember that markup text is used for giving the website its functionality.
What is HTML5?
HTML5 is simply the 5th version of HTML. As with all upgrades, it is more powerful, versatile and more advanced than a previous version. If we compare directly HTML and HTML5 we can see a lot of differences. For instance, HTML5 allows JavaScript to run in the browser itself. It can be used for drawing shapes such as triangles and circles and supports audio and video tags. HTML doesn’t support any of these things.
One of the biggest differences is the support for smartphones and tablets. HTML5 is optimized for these platforms, while original HTML isn’t.
All you need to remember is that HHTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language and it is used for designing websites. HTML5 is the 5th version of the language and more advanced, more versatile and the one developers use today.
Major differences between HTML vs HTML5

HTML | HTML5 | |
Multimedia | No support for multimedia | Video and audio are integrated into it. |
Geographic | HTML has support for tracking users who visit the site. | HTML5 offers JavaScript Geolocation API whic can identify user’s location better. |
Storage | HTML uses browser cache memory as temporary storage. | There are multiple storage solutions in HTML5. They are SQL database, web storage, and application cache. |
Communication | Communication between client and server is done via streaming and long pooling. | HTML5 supports sockets. |
Browser Compatibility | All browsers support HTML as it is the standard for web display. | There are some new tags which aren’t supported by old web browsers. |
Vector Graphics | They can be rendered via 3rd party tools such as Flash, Silverlight… | HTML5 has canvas and SVG built-in so it supports vector graphics by default. |
Threading | Browser interface and JavaScript are running on the same thread. | JavaScript Web Workers allows to separate JS and browser interface into multiple threads. |