What does a URL field do that a text field doesn't?

Question

What are the benefits of using the URL field type rather than a text field named "URL"?

I did research but only found that they're limited to 255 characters (whereas real URLs are not). I also found many questions about URL fields not handling URLs as the developer expected.

References:

• https://help.salesforce.com/articleView?id=custom_field_types.htm
• https://developer.salesforce.com/docs/atlas.en-us.api.meta/api/glossary_api.htm?search_text=url
• https://developer.salesforce.com/forums/?id=9060G000000BgnRQAS
• https://developer.salesforce.com/blogs/2018/01/heres-need-know-new-url-format-lightning.html
• https://success.salesforce.com/answers?id=9063A000000pA0UQAU
• https://developer.salesforce.com/docs/atlas.en-us.api.meta/api/field_types.htm

Answer 1

I believe the difference is mainly just the end-user convenience that URL fields are clickable in UI elements like record pages, list views, and reports (as well as when rendered via Lightning components and Visualforce output tags), while URLs stored in normal Text fields are not. And as your first link notes, there is some "intelligence" to what a click does in terms of opening in a new browser window versus a new browser tab versus a new workspace tab, depending on if the address is an internal or external URL.