These breads are made with whole wheat flour, but the cooking style and shape are different. While plain paratha has layers and is triangular, chapati is perfectly round without any layers. Chapati is cooked on tawa until it fluffs up without ghee or oil, and ghee is later applied on the top, whereas on the other hand, plain paratha is shallow fried on the tawa using ghee or oil.  Chapati is also thin and papery, in comparison.