What is the difference?
Breadcrumbs vs Steps / Stepper
The difference is what each one measures. Breadcrumbs measure depth inside a fixed tree that exists regardless of you: the page sits where it sits whether you visit it or not. Steps measure your own progress through a task that ends.
Ask yourself one question
If you landed on this page straight from a search result, would the indicator still be correct?
Breadcrumbs
مسار التنقّلaria-current="page"Use it when
A content site with nested categories: a shop, documentation, an archive. The trail is fixed per page and never varies by visitor.
Full entryالخطوة 2 من 4 · الشحن
Steps / Stepper
مؤشّر الخطواتaria-current="step"Use it when
An action with an end: a checkout, onboarding a new account, a long split form. The indicator moves as the user moves.
Full entryThe classic mistake
Filling breadcrumbs with the pages the visitor happened to view. That is a history trail, not a breadcrumb: the same page then shows two different trails to two visitors, and it breaks the BreadcrumbList data in search results.
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