What is the difference between Element and Component in ReactJS?

In ReactJS, the terms "Element" and "Component" refer to distinct concepts that play crucial roles in building and managing a user interface, but they serve different purposes.

React Element

A React Element is a plain object that describes what you want to appear on the screen in terms of the DOM nodes or other components. It is the simplest building block in React applications, representing a virtual DOM node. An element can describe a standard DOM element (like <div>, <span>, etc.) or a user-defined component that will eventually be rendered. Elements are immutable, meaning once they are created, their properties cannot be changed. This immutability ensures that React can efficiently manage updates to the UI by simply replacing old elements with new ones during the rendering process.

Elements are created using JSX or the React.createElement() function, which returns an object specifying the type of element (e.g., a tag like 'div' or a React component), its properties (props), and its children. For example, using React.createElement('div', {id: 'login-btn'}, 'Login') returns an object that describes a div element with certain properties and content[1][2][3][4][5].

React Component

A React Component, on the other hand, is a reusable piece of code that defines how a part of the UI should behave and look. Components can be either class-based or functional. They encapsulate the logic needed for rendering UI elements and can manage their own state and lifecycle. Components accept inputs called "props" and return React elements that describe what should appear on the UI.

Components are more complex than elements because they include methods and ...