The main difference is that appendChild
is a DOM method and append
is a jQuery method. The second one uses the first as you can see on jQuery source code
append: function() {
return this.domManip(arguments, true, function( elem ) {
if ( this.nodeType === 1 || this.nodeType === 11 || this.nodeType === 9 ) {
this.appendChild( elem );
}
});
},
If you’re using jQuery library on your project, you’ll be safe always using append
when adding elements to the page.