What is the difference between web application and website in asp.net?

What is the difference between web application and website in asp.net?
and if it have a difference which best from all sides?

thanks in advance ..

From stackoverflow

• There is an article in MSDN which describes the differences:

  Comparing Web Site Projects and Web Application Projects

  BTW: there are some similar questions about that topic, e.g:

  • Web Site vs. ASP.Net Web Application in Visual Studio
  • website or webapplication in.ASP.NET

• It depends on what you are developing.

  A content oriented website will have it content changing frequently and a Website is better for theat.

  An application tends to have its data stored in a database and its pages and code change rarely. In this case its better to have a Web application where deployment of assemblies is much more controlled and has better support for unit testing.

• One of the key differences is that Websites compile dynamicly and create on the fly assemblies, web applicaitons compile into one large assembly.

  The distinction between the 2 has been done away with in vs2008.

  Zhaph - Ben Duguid : "The distinction between the 2 has been done away with in vs2008" - not sure what you mean there - they are still distinct project types in VS2008, behave differently and are created through different menu options - however at least they are both available by default in VS2008.

• If you want to work with Subversion, you are better off with an Application Project, as outlined here.

  Michael Stum : Wikified since it's just a link to other content on SO.

  M4N : I'm successfully using subversion with website projects.

  AnthonyWJones : If what is being developed is a website then your better off with a website solution. If your source code management tool struggles with it, change your SCC not the type of project.