Difference between 404 and soft 404 error

[vikas]

Difference between 404 and soft 404 error?

[RH-Calvin]

404 Not Found is an error code which states that the requested resource could not be found but may be available again in the future. Subsequent requests by the client are permissible. A soft 404 means that the server did return a page but it looks like it couldn't find anything. Imagine a portal with a page for a house for sale. The house gets sold and that page now becomes: "This house has now been sold". This would become a soft 404 error if it remained in the sitemap.xml or there were links to it from other pages.

[jackluter]

404 error refers that the page is not existing in search engine.
soft 404 error refers to redirect to other page where search engine cant solve this error once its happens.

[mariaandreson]

404 not found error is confirm us that page details are not found search engine or delete the page. Soft 404 means redirect the page to another page.