HTML and XHTML are both languages in which web pages are written. HTML is SGML-based while XHTML is XML-based. They are like two sides of the same coin. XHTML was derived from HTML to conform to XML standards. Hence XHTML is strict when compared to HTML and does not allow user to get away with lapses in coding and structure.
The reason for XHTML to be developed was convoluted browser specific tags. Pages coded in HTML appeared different in different browsers.
HTML is the predominant mark up language for web pages. HTML creates structured documents by denoting structural semantics for text like headings, lists, links, quotes etc. It allows images and objects to be embedded to create interactive forms. It is written as tags surrounded by angle brackets - for example, . Scripts in languages like JavaScript can also be loaded.
XHTML is a family of XML languages which extend or mirror versions of HTML. It does not allow omission of any tags or use of attribute minimization. XHTML requires that there be an end tag to every start tag and all nested tags must be closed in the right order. For example, while
is valid in HTML, it would be required to write
in XHTML.