Some of the main differences between include Directive and include Action are as follows...

1 - Include directive is called at translation phase to include content in JSP. Include Action is executed during runtime of JSP.

2 - It is not possible to pass parameters to include directive. Include action can accept parameters by jsp:param tag.

3 - Include directive is just copying of content from another file to JSP code and then it goes through compilation. Include action will dynamically process the resource being called and then include it in the JSP page.