# Spot the difference  URL VS URI


![uri-vs-url.png](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1638891053272/Etxeeav3qn.png)
URL(Uniform Resource Locator) known as the address of a website is a reference for a resource and a way to access that resource

structure of a URL

protocol://[hostname]path[?query][#fragment]

While 

URI(Uniform Resource Identifier) is a way to identify a resource.
Unlike the URL, the Uniform Resource Identifier doesn't necessarily provide the means to locate the resource

To summarize it, the URL is a subset of a URI, ( that is to say, URL is a URI with a way to access that resource), another example of a URI is an ISBN. ( The International Standard Book Number is a numeric commercial book identifier that is intended to be unique. )


| URI | URL |
| --- | --- |
| Uniform Resource Identifier | Uniform Resource Locator |
| superset of URL that identifies a resource | subset of URI that specifies where a resource exists and the mechanism for retrieving it |
|  the main aim of URI is to find a resource. | The main aim of URL is to get the location or address of a resource |
| URI in used in HTML, XML and other files. | URL is used to locate only web pages, | 
| Example urn:isbn:0-486-27557-4. | Example   'https://kasasira.pages.dev' |