Difference Between jQuery and Ajax (With Table)

jquery is considered as an open-source JavaScript library. It helps to simplify the interactions between a CSS/HTML document, precisely the JavaScript and DOM (Document Object Model). Elaboratively, it simplifies browser event handling, Ajax interactions, DOM (Document Object Model) animations, cross-browser JavaScript development, and HTML document manipulation and traveling.

Ajax stands for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, which is a new technique for developing faster, better, and more engaging web applications with the help of CSS, JavaScript, HTML, and XML. For presentation Ajax uses CSS and for content it uses XHTML along with JavaScript and DOM (Document Object Model) for DCD (dynamic content display).

Comparison Table Between jQuery and Ajax

What is jQuery?

jQuery is considered as an open-source JavaScript library that helps to simplify browser event handling, Ajax interactions, DOM (Document Object Model) animations, cross-browser JavaScript development, and HTML document manipulation and traveling.

Jquery made it very easy to select elements of DOM (Document Object Model) and acts for traversing them and use Sizzle, which is a cross-browser open source selector engine, for modifying their content. It offers a proper way to capture a wide range of events. 

Jquery helps to develop a feature-rich and responsive site by using Ajax technology. It comes with a wide range of default animation effects that are used in websites. It is a very lightweight library that is gzipped and minified and its size is about 19KB. It has cross-browser support which works perfectly in Chrome, Safari, Opera, FF 2.0+, and IE 6.0+. 

There are some disadvantages of using Jquery. The client of jquery needs to handle lots of functions created from jquery. It makes the clients slower if it is used excessively. As a result, developers need to use another cache. It has several functions which depend on the requirements of the site. But there are many functions that are not developed yet. It is a major disadvantage of Jquery.

What is Ajax?

Ajax stands for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML. Ajax is a new technique for developing faster, better, and more engaging web applications with the help of CSS, JavaScript, HTML, and XML. 

Ajax is a combination of many other technologies like JS, DOM, CSS, and HTML that provides many new functionalities. It is not a single technology, it is a term that represents a combination of multiple technologies.

Ajax is a powerful tool compared to jquery and it cannot use HTML as it is a simple tool. It permits the content of the web pages to be updated very fast when a user uses it without reloading the web page. The user can not identify the data exchange process on the web page as the action is conducted behind the scene.

There are several advantages of Ajax. It’s easy to use and learn Ajax as it utilizes existing technologies. Its design is to create a more diverse web and enhance the interaction between the users and website. Its popularity encourages developing molds that will allow programmers to avoid any pre-collapsed traces.

But there are some disadvantages too. Ajax doesn’t allow it to be bookmarked in the browser as all processes are not visible in the address and occur in the background. In some browsers, Ajax can not run as the function of the JavaScript often turns off due to security needs.

Main Difference Between jQuery and Ajax

1. jQuery is considered as an open-source JavaScript library. It helps to simplify browser event handling, Ajax interactions, DOM (Document Object Model) animations, cross-browser JavaScript development, and HTML document manipulation and traveling. On the other hand, Ajax is a new technique for developing faster, better, and more engaging web applications with the help of CSS, JavaScript, HTML, and XML.
2. Jquery is a lightweight language and it mainly targets the interactions of the elements of the HTML. But, Ajax is a powerful tool compared to jquery and it cannot use HTML as it is a simple tool.
3. After a page is loaded jquery can not load the page again, but Ajax can.
4. There is no chance of server overloading during working with jquery. Heavy usage of Ajax can result in server overloading as whenever an Ajax call happens there is an increased number of connections.
5. Jquery is unable to provide new technologies by combining any other technologies. It is a combination of many other technologies like JS, DOM, CSS, and HTML that provides many new functionalities.

Conclusion

Jquery and Ajax are the most commonly used technologies to develop interactive web interfaces. These two technologies help to make the web application work attractive and effective. Jquery and Ajax are equally important technologies and it is quite hard to differentiate these two technologies as jquery and Ajax are often used together with each other.

However, the main difference between these two technologies is that jquery is built by using JavaScript which is more like a Framework, on the other hand, Ajax is a way or technique of using JavaScript to communicate with the server without reloading a web page. Ajax is used by jquery for many of its functions.

References

1. https://books.google.co.in/books?hl=en&lr=&id=gDhVZ35PA8AC&oi=fnd&pg=PT16&dq=what+is+Jquery+&ots=oqm42_Lbs_&sig=F9Zxy9CCz1AnczGHPlMpPuY63TQ&redir_esc=y
2. https://www.scriptol.fr/ajax/ajax_adaptive_path.pdf