Within a more focused environment, vortals typically provide articles, news, research data, statistics, discussions, newsletters, chat rooms, online tools and many other services pertaining to a specific niche.
Portals generally attract a large numbers of netizens.
But there is a difference between a portal and a vortal. But vortals are narrower in focus. They cater to a specific industry, theme or idea. Their communities may be smaller but they are of higher quality and therefore highly targeted. And more often than not, they have very little competition.