What is the difference between the internet and the web?

NicolasBrondinBernard

When talking about the Internet and the Web, these terms are sometimes used interchangeably, when in fact they refer to very different concepts.

Web Internet

Article published on 09/12/2024, last updated on 10/08/2026

When talking about the Internet and the Web, these terms are sometimes used interchangeably, when in fact they refer to very different concepts.

And understanding this distinction is essential, especially as a developer

What is the Internet?

The key thing to remember is that the Internet is an infrastructure.

It's a huge global network that connects millions of other networks to each other, through ISPs (Internet Service Providers)

Each of these smaller networks themselves connect all kinds of equipment such as:

personal computers
servers
connected devices
network equipment (switches, routers,…)

This "network of networks" works thanks to a physical infrastructure (submarine cables, fiber optics, telephone lines,…) but also thanks to standardized protocols allowing machines to communicate with each other.

This is the case of the TCP/IP protocol suite, explained here.

In simple terms, the Internet is the medium that enables the transmission of data between machines on the other side of the planet. And it is this medium that enables a multitude of services and technologies to work, such as email, file sharing, video conferencing, and, of course, the Web.

Initially, the Internet was called "Arpanet," because it was funded by ARPA, the American government research agency, and the Department of Defense. If you're interested in the history of the creation of the Internet, check out our dedicated article!

What is the Web?

The World Wide Web (or simply "web") is one of the many services that run on the Internet.

Created by Tim Berners-Lee in 1989 at CERN, the web is a massive collection of documents and media (images, videos, files,…) connected to each other like a web, thanks to "hypertext" links.

The Web relies on specific technologies, such as:

HTTP: the protocol that allows web pages to be requested and received.
HTML/CSS/JavaScript: the languages used to structure, style, and animate these pages.
URLs: the unique addresses used to identify and access resources.

In summary, the Web is like a gigantic book, whose pages are scattered all over the planet, and connected to each other by links.