Differences between viruses and bacteria

– Viruses are acellular while bacteria are cellular organisms
– viruses do not possess ribosomes, bacteria do
– viruses are smaller and can only be seen under electron microscope, while bacteria are larger and can  be seen under light microscope
– viruses have simple structure of protein coat enclosing nucleic acid, bacteria are larger and can be seen under light microscope
– viruses reproduce by replication while bacteria reproduce by binary fission
– bacteria have independent metabolic machinery, viruses do not
– viruses contain only one type of nucleic acid (DNA or RNA), while bacteria contain both DNA and RNA.