Disable Product vs. Remove Product From Website

Question

I want to enable/disable products for specific websites. I see two ways of doing it:

1. Enable/Disable the product under the respective website (change the attribute status).
2. Remove the product from the respective website (tab Websites on the product edit page).

I think both options should do exactly the same. Is there any behavioural difference between the two?

Answer 1

I would assume that is something different as removing it from that website should result in non-indexing it but deactivating should not prevent indexation of that product. So if you have this scenario with a high amount of SKUs then removing from a website could be the better solution.

Answer 2

I believe that if you remove a product from being assigned to one website, it will cease to exist for that website. However, if you disable it, it won't be available for sale, but will still show up in the admin under catalog and in a customer's history if purchased at one time when enabled.