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NotThamesWater
The router routes. Each port is a different network, with it's own DHCP server and IP range. It's own config and features.
The switch allows multiple ports on the same network.
You can use the router by itself and just stick things on different networks, but this can have the effect of making some software that has dumb defaults not behave properly. i.e. if there this an expectation that two devices must talk to each other and it is presumed that they are on the same IP range rather than different networks.
This is all a non-issue if you use a switch too and stick everything on the same network, so for simplicity I suggest people do that. But, they don't have to... instead just bear in mind this could be the root cause of any issue that arises.