What is Dynamic and Static?

Difference between static and dynamic

The terms dynamic and static can be used in a variety of different ways, therefore, their processes and differences are dependent on the system they are describing. However, in general, there are a few common characteristics.

Static systems are usually less intricate, take shorter time to develop and have faster loading times. The disadvantage to static components is that they are not interactive, meaning they cannot always perform required, complex functionality. Dynamic systems can handle more complex functionality and can perform customized returns based on user, channel or application. The disadvantage to dynamic components is that they require more time to load and develop.

One example of how systems can work dynamically or statically are websites. When a web page is requested by a user, the web server where the page is stored returns the HTML document to the user’s computer and the browser displays it. On a static web page, this is all that happens. The user may interact with the document, but it has no capacity to return information that is not pre-formatted. On a dynamic web page, the user can make requests for data contained in a database on the server that will be assembled on the fly according to what is requested. Static web pages are better suited for information that rarely changes while dynamic web pages are better suited for uses such as forms, search functions or comment sections.