Portals and websites are distinct entities, often overlapping and complementing each other. They need to be strongly linked together, but they should not replace each other. A Website presents an organization to the outside world, while a portal provides multiple user roles with a common access point to broad resources.

Public Interface.

Target one user type / audience.

Support users in specific tasks (marketing or e-commerce).

Provides targeted content from specfic resources / authors.

Generally content focused.

May or may not have authentication.

Public and private interface (extranet, intranet, etc..).

Common access point for multiple user roles.

Personalization / Role-specific functionality and content.

Versatile / Enhanced functionality and flexibility.

Provide users with access to broad resources.

Support users in multiple tasks (discovery, learning, research, purchasing, etc..).

Provides content from diverse distributed resources.

Generally spans content, collaboration and e-commerce.

Authentication process to "know" a user.