What is MP4?
MP4 is the container video actually travels in - what phones record, what messaging apps accept, what every player since the iPod era opens. It usually carries H.264 video, and its one structural quirk matters to converters: the index of every frame lives in a table that has to be exactly right, or nothing plays.
What is WEBM?
WebM is the web's own video container - Matroska slimmed down to the royalty-free codecs (VP8, VP9, AV1). Browsers play it natively and screen recorders love emitting it; the rest of the world's video tooling is distinctly lukewarm about it, which is why it so often needs converting.