Innate vs. Adaptive Immunity

No.	Characteristics	Innate Immunity	Adaptive immunity
1.	Presence	Innate immunity is something already present in the body.	Adaptive immunity is created in response to exposure to a foreign substance.
2.	Specificity	Non-Specific	Specific
3.	Response	Fights any foreign invader	Fight only specific infection
4.	Response	Rapid	Slow (1-2 weeks)
5.	Potency	Limited and Lower potency	High potency
6.	Time span	Once activated against a specific type of antigen, the immunity remains throughout the life.	The span of developed immunity can be lifelong or short.
7.	Inheritance	Innate type of immunity is generally inherited from parents and passed to offspring.	Adaptive immunity is not passed from the parents to offspring, hence it cannot be inherited.
8.	Memory	Cannot react with equal potency upon repeated exposure to the same pathogen.	Adaptive system can remember the specific pathogens which have encountered before.
9.	Presence	Present at birth	Develops during a person’s lifetime and can be short-lived.
10.	Allergic Reaction	None	Immediate and Delay hypersensitivity
11.	Used Against	For microbes	Microbes and non-microbial substances called antigens
12.	Memory	No memory	Long term memory
13.	Diversity	Limited	High
14.	Speed	Faster response	Slower response
15.	Complement system activation	Alternative and lectin pathways	Classical pathway
16.	Anatomic and physiological barriers	Skin, Mucous membranes, Temp, pH, chemicals, etc.	Lymph nodes, spleen, mucosal associated lymphoid tissue.
17.	Composition	The innate immune system is composed of physical and chemical barriers, phagocytic leukocytes, dendritic cells, natural killer cells, and plasma proteins.	Adaptive immune system is composed of B cells and T cells.
18.	Development	Evolutionary, older and is found in both vertebrates and invertebrates.	Adaptive immunity system has been developed recently and is found only in the vertebrates.
19.	Example	White blood cells fighting bacteria, causing redness and swelling, when you have a cut.	Chickenpox vaccination so that we don’t get chickenpox because adaptive immunity system has remembered the foreign body.

Ref: https://microbiologyinfo.com/difference-between-innate-and-adaptive-immunity/