What’s The Difference Between Browser Cache And Cookies?

Cache and cookies are two different forms of temporary storage kept on client’s machine to improve the users experience and performance of web pages. Although both of them stores data on client’s machine, they serve different purposes.

What are Cookies?

Internet cookies are what make people's browser experience so personalized and convenient. They are small files that contain information useful to a website such as credentials, preferences, date and time of visit, how frequently the user visits, what buttons are clicks, items in shopping cart, etc. Have you ever gone to log in to a website and your username or email was already there? Have you ever gone to a website and you've seen an ad for something you recently searched up or your shopping cart suggests that you buy something you might like? Those are examples of the magic of cookies!

What is a Browser Cache?

Browser cache is information that browsers download for faster viewing in the future. Common assets that are cached are images, videos, data, and documents. Browsers are able to load websites and content faster since the data is stored locally and prevents all the data from being downloaded again from the server.

It is recommended that you should clear your browser cache every few weeks to ensure it is running efficiently. This is because old versions of cached files can cause issues for users if their devices don't have the latest version of the file. For example if you have an old image or code cached, the website will not be up to date and it can cause issues.

Main Differences Between Cookies and Cache:

1. Data Type

   Cookies refer to user data (Preferences, credentials, usage while cache refers to website data (assets and code).

2. Function:

   Cookies are related to tracking user behavior while caches are related to how fast websites load web assets.

3. Size:

   The size of cookies are very small in size, taking about 3-4 kilobytes on average, but there is a lot of information stores and they can add up. Cached data sized varies since each page you load send some memory files to your browser/device. Some web content can run into gigabytes like photos and videos but some others can be smaller.

How to Clear Cache and Cookies in Chrome:

1. Go to the URL address bar: chrome://settings/clearBrowserData

2. Make sure “Cookies and other site data” and “Cached images and files” are checked.

How to Clear all Cookies in Safari:

1. Launch Safari

2. In the Menu bar, click on Safari -> Preferences

3. Go to the Advanced Tab and check the box for “Show develop menu in menu bar”

4. Now, when you want to clear your cache go to Develop in the menu bar and select “Empty Caches”