Advantages and Disadvantages of HTML5

Introduction

Do you remember the times when you have to use flash players to run any videos or multimedia files on a website?

Well, this issue was resolved after the introduction of HTML5, and not only this but HTML5 also bought some other features like canvas and semantic tags. Here we will be discussing the advantages and disadvantages of HTML5.

But before that let’s quickly discuss HTML5

HTML5 is the fifth and the latest version of HyperText Markup Language, which is a language for structuring the webpages.

Ok, so what were the problems faced before HTML5?

Before HTML5

As we have discussed, before HTML5 we were unable to play multimedia on our website without the help of flash players. We were also only capable of creating static web pages that do not contain any dynamic content or functionality. HTML was also not mobile-friendly.

Maintaining HTML code was also difficult because of its lengthy and complex syntaxes and the code offered no or poor security features. Client-side storage was also not there before HTML5.

Search engine optimization was not supported with earlier versions of HTML and you have to write multiple codes for the same website according to different browsers just because it was not cross-platform.

How HTML5 solved those problems?

HTML5 introduced <audio> <video> and <canvas> tags which made it possible to use multimedia within the websites and make website more dynamic.

HTML5 has short and crisp syntax and comes with smart and improved security features hence it became very easy to write and manage HTML5 code. HTML5 also included temporary client-side data storage with the help of SQL which made it possible for the users to browse already loaded content even when they are offline.

HTML5 introduced semantic tags which are very helpful in defining your webpages into meaningful sections and are really helpful in search engine optimization.

HTML5 is cross-platform which means there is no need of writing different code for different browsers and hence it saved a lot of time and cost. HTML5 is also multiple devices friendly.

Challenges faced with HTML5

Since HTML5 is relatively new hence it can run only on modern browsers like Chrome (version 61 and above) and older browsers like IE will face difficulties while loading HTML5 content. Its ability to run on different sets of devices makes handling the responsiveness of the websites on different devices a headache.

In HTML5 most of the code is rendered/cached on the client-side so it becomes easy for the user to access the entire code and use of local storage to store any crucial information about the site or use is not a good idea because it is also easily accessible and can be vulnerable.

HTML5 made it possible to include different formats of media, and according to the devices, you have to include multiple formats of the same media and that will cause an increase in the media licensing cost.

Let’s summarize the advantages and disadvantages of HTML5 in brief pointers

Advantages

• Multimedia support
• Short and simple syntax
• Improved security features
• Inlcude semantic tags
• Cross-platform support

Disadvantages

• Client-side rendering
• Local storage is less secure
• Different video supports for different browsers
• Media licensing cost
• Doesn’t support old browsers
• Tough to handle responsiveness on the range of devices

Conclusion

HTML5 is a better version of HTML by improvising HTML and providing features like multimedia compatibility or multi-platform compatibility. You can learn more about the differences here.

But there are still a few problems with HTML5 but since HTML is constantly evolving, these all problems will possibly be fixed in the future.

Author - Riddhi Suteri