What is the difference between an online voice recorder and a digital recorder

A digital recorder is a physical microphone which you use to record your voice for podcasts/streaming etc. The audio quality is much better when you use a digital recorder versus using the inbuilt microphone of your laptop.

However if you are not using a microphone on a daily basis for your work/studies, it might not be worthwhile to invest the money and purchase a digital recorder and the quality of the inbuilt microphone of your laptop is good enough,