• setVeryLoud(true);@lemmy.ca
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    10 months ago

    Web developer here.

    If your site has a lot of interactivity, it is a web app.

    A read-only site like Wikipedia is not a web app.

    A store page is not a web app.

    Your bank’s customer portal is a web app.

    Facebook, Lemmy, Reddit, Twitter, etc. are web apps because they provide a lot of interactivity.

    I agree that the line between web apps and websites is blurry, but my thinking is if a website is built mostly using front-end technologies, it is a web app, if it’s built mostly with JSP or PHP, it’s a website. Things like the WordPress admin panel blur the line between the two as they offer lots of interactivity, but is mostly PHP-based.

    • asdfasdfasdf@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Also a web developer. I don’t understand the reason you’d even need a common term to distinguish between the two. Wikipedia and Facebook are websites. Tons of websites have interactivity. It’s a spectrum. Why can’t we just say “website”?