Single Page Application (SPA) and Multi Page Application (MPA) are essentially two different approaches to building a web application.
1. Single Page Application (SPA):
In a SPA, all necessary code (HTML/CSS/JavaScript) is retrieved with a single page load, or the necessary resources are dynamically loaded and added to the page as required. This can happen in response to user actions, meaning the page doesn’t need to be refreshed during the user’s session. Instead, certain actions trigger new content to be requested from the server and modified in the browser. This reduces the load time and provides a smooth user experience. Most React.js applications are SPAs.
1. Multi-Page Application (MPA):
Unlike SPA, an MPA is a web application that reloads the entire page and displays the new one whenever the user interacts with the web app. MPAs send requests to the server and update the entire page. To build a MPA, developers often have to use multiple templates/frameworks and bundle each page separately, which can lead to more complex development and testing processes.
The key difference between the two lies in the user experience — SPA appears to be more dynamic and fluid by allowing navigation without page refresh, while MPA feels more traditional with full page reloads. However, the choice between SPA and MPA depends on the specific requirements of the project.
