| Feature | Flash | Ajax |
| Audio | *Dynamically load audio. Support embedded flash audio. | Supported only through external plug-ins (like Media Player). |
| Browser Integration | Flash Player plug-in required. Flash is limited to a predefined rectangular area of the browser. | *JavaScript natively supported by modern browsers. Simple interaction with any part of the browser. |
| Compatibility Issues | *Minor variations between versions of Flash. | Major compatibility differences between browser versions. |
| CSS | Limited support. | *Full Support (depending on browser). |
| Dynaic Content Generation | Difficult. SWF is a pre-compiled closed format. Currently there is no language to describe SWFs. (Compare SVG, which is XML-based.) | *HTML can be written out using just about any kind of Server technology. Dynamic image generation is more difficult, but is possible on some platforms (like PHP). |
| Programming Model | *ActionScript 2.0 provides robust, java-like framework. | JavaScript 2.0 not yet supported by any major browser. JS 1.5 not recommended for large OOP applications. |
| Raster (Bitmap) Graphics | *Load static images dynamically. Support for JPG, GIF and PNG. Bitmap manipulation. | Load static images dynamically. |
| Regular Expressions | Not supported natively by AS 2.0, but open-source solutions are available. | *Full support. |
| Server Integration | *Many solutions available. Flash can communicate with ASP, PHP, ASPX and many other types of server scripts. Commercial solutions, like Flash Remoting, are also available that provide live connections to a database. | Limited. Can communicate dynamically with server using IFRAME trick or XMLHttpRequest Object. |
| Text | Text API mimics some HTML functionality. | *Powerful layout capabilities. |
| Vector Graphics | *Full Support. | None. |
| Video | *Dynamically load FLV video files or playback embedded videos. | Supported only through external plug-ins (like Media Player). Multiple Video Formats can be loaded. |
| XML | *Full support. | Not supported natively by JavaScript. |