Access-List vs Prefix-List

What is the difference between an access-list & a prefix-list ?

The ip prefix-list command is used to configure IP prefix filtering. Prefix lists are configured with permit or deny keywords to either permit or deny the prefix based on the matching condition. A prefix list consists of an IP address and a bit mask. The IP address can be a classful network, a subnet, or a single host route. The bit mask is entered as a number from 1 to 32. An implicit deny is applied to traffic that does match any prefix-list entry.

Prefix lists are configured to match an exact prefix length or a prefix range. The ge and le keywords are used to specify a range of the prefix lengths to match, providing more flexible configuration than can be configured with just the network/length argument. The prefix list is processed using an exact match when neither the ge nor le keyword is entered. If only the ge value is entered, the range is the value entered for the ge ge-length argument to a full 32-bit length. If only the le value is entered, the range is from value entered for the network/length argument to the le le-length argument. If both the ge ge-length and le le-length keywords and arguments are entered, the range falls between the values used for the ge-length and le-length arguments. The following formula shows this behavior:

network/length < ge ge-length < le le-length <= 32

A prefix list is configured with a name and/or sequence number. One or the other must be entered when configuring this command. If a sequence number is not entered, a default sequence number of 5 is applied to the prefix list, and subsequent prefix list entries will be increment by 5 (for example, 5, 10, 15, and onwards). If a sequence number is entered for the first prefix list entry but not subsequent entries, then the subsequent entries will also be incremented by 5 (For example, if the first configured sequence number is 3, then subsequent entries will be 8, 13, 18, and onwards). Default sequence numbers can be suppressed by entering the no form of this command with the seq keyword.

Prefix lists are evaluated starting with the lowest sequence number and continues down the list until a match is made. Once a match is made that covers the network the permit or deny statement is applied to that network and the rest of the list is not evaluated.