What is the Difference Between HTML 4 and HTML 5?

🆚 Go to Comparative Table 🆚

The main differences between HTML 4 and HTML 5 are:

  1. New and simplified functions: HTML 5 introduced new tags, features, and simplified various functions, making it more advanced and user-friendly compared to HTML 4.
  2. Semantic tags: HTML 5 introduced several new semantic tags, such as <article>, <section>, <nav>, <audio>, <video>, and <canvas>, which provide better document structure and accessibility.
  3. Removal of presentational attributes: HTML 5 removed many presentational attributes that were in HTML 4, as their functions are better suited for CSS.
  4. Integrated multimedia support: HTML 5 supports the integration of multimedia content, such as audio and video, without the need for external plugins.
  5. Compatibility: HTML 4 is an iteration of HTML 3.2 and is compatible with many web browsers. HTML 5, being the latest version, offers more advanced features and is also compatible with modern web browsers.

In summary, HTML 5 is a more advanced and user-friendly version of HTML compared to HTML 4, offering new tags, features, and improvements. It has simplified various functions and introduced new semantic tags for better document structure and accessibility.

Comparative Table: HTML 4 vs HTML 5

Here is a table comparing the differences between HTML 4 and HTML 5:

Feature HTML 4 HTML 5
New Tags None Several new tags introduced, such as <canvas>, <video>, <audio>, and <track>
Table Structure Table elements have to conform to the table model (e.g., two cells are not allowed to overlap) The <tfoot> tag can be placed before or after <tbody>
Closing Tags Closing tags like </td>, </th>, </thead>, </tbody>, and </tfoot> are optional but strongly recommended Closing tags like </td>, </th>, </thead>, </tbody>, and </tfoot> are optional, but <table> and <caption> must be closed
Presentational Attributes Several presentational attributes in HTML 4 Many presentational attributes from HTML 4 have been removed, and their functions are better served by CSS
Doctype <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/strict.dtd"> <!DOCTYPE html>

HTML 5 is an update to HTML 4, introducing new features, new tags, and simplifying various functions. While HTML 4 has fewer features and tags, HTML 5 offers more flexibility and is the current standard for web development.