Compare and Contrast Essay Topics: 135 Fresh Ideas

Writing a compare and contrast essay is one of the easiest tasks ever.

The only difficulty is finding a topic—things to compare and contrast, two objects or phenomena that are similar and different at the same time.

However, with the following list of ready-to-use compare and contrast essay topics, it’s not a problem anymore.

And remember - you can always turn to our expert writers to help you with your paper.

Compare and Contrast Essay Topics: Easy as ABC

As a kind of warm-up, try to find differences and similarities in the following:

1. Talking to friends and texting them
2. Winter holidays and summer holidays
3. Photos and paintings
4. Email and pigeon post
5. Fruits and vegetables
6. Social media and face-to-face communication
7. Childhood vs adulthood
8. Cash and credit cards
9. Books and movies
10. Cats and dogs

Compare and Contrast Essay Topics for Beginners

11. Handwriting and typing
12. Animals in the zoos and animals in the wild
13. Driving a car and using public transport
14. Using Uber and taking a cab
15. Traveling with friends and traveling solo
16. Homeschooling and attending a public school
17. Physical beauty vs inner beauty
18. Coffee and energy drinks
19. Facebook and Twitter
20. Studying in high school and attending college
21. Paper bags and plastic packaging
22. Giving presents and receiving presents

Compare and Contrast Essay Topics: Natural Sciences

23. Mountains and volcanoes
24. Apples and tomatoes
25. Ants and bees
26. Nuclear power vs solar power
27. Rainbows and lightning
28. Frogs and toads
29. Gasoline and biodiesel
30. Melons and citrus fruit
31. Volcanoes and earthquakes
32. Tornadoes and blizzards
33. Sugar and salt

Comparison and Contrast Essay Topics: Humanities and Social Studies

34. Revolution and evolution
35. Christopher Columbus and the first astronauts
36. Anorexia and obesity
37. A sentence and a phrase
38. Online education and traditional education
39. Greek vs Roman mythology
40. Protestantism and Catholicism
41. Socialism and capitalism
42. Poetry and prose
43. Inventions and discoveries
44. Sci-fi and fantasy

Compare and Contrast Essay Topics: People

45. Justin Bieber and John Lennon
46. Oprah Winfrey and Tyra Banks
47. Leonardo Da Vinci and Steve Jobs
48. William Shakespeare and Petrarch
49. Thomas Hobbes and John Locke
50. Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin
51. Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin
52. Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth I
53. Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela
54. Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois
55. Thomas Jefferson and John Adams
56. George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush
57. Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley
58. Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton
59. Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus
60. Mother Teresa and Angelina Jolie

Compare/Contrast Essay Topics: Popular Culture

61. Graffiti and Black Square by Kazimir Malevich
62. Twitter and newspapers
63. OkCupid and Tinder
64. Reality TV shows and YouTube videos
65. Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings
66. The Hunger Games and Divergent
67. Modern dancing and classical or ballroom dancing
68. TV shows and comic books
69. Rap and hip-hop
70. The Twilight saga and Dracula
71. Star Trek and Star Wars
72. Facebook comments and class discussion

Comparison Essay Topics: History

73. The Roman Empire and the British Empire
74. The Soviet Union and communist China
75. World War I and World War II
76. The American North and South during the Civil War
77. Slavery and indentured servitude
78. The Salem witch trials and McCarthyism
79. The civil rights movement and the women’s suffrage movement
80. The assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Abraham Lincoln
81. The ideas of Karl Marx and Soviet communism
82. The French Revolution and the Russian Revolution
83. The Vietnam War and the Iraq War
84. The Holocaust and the Rwandan genocide
85. The League of Nations and the United Nations
86. The Arab Spring and the Prague Spring

Ideas for Compare and Contrast Essays: Uncategorized

87. Marriage and civil unions
88. The influence of parents and the influence of peers
89. Texting while driving and skydiving
90. Learning Chinese and learning Latin
91. Going to the movies and watching Netflix
92. Being boring and being bored
93. Windows and Linux
94. Public schools and charter schools
95. Your current car and your dream car
96. Owning property and renting it
97. Reading and listening to audiobooks
98. Speed dating and speed networking
99. Teenagers and toddlers
100. Studying all night and partying all night

Compare and Contrast Essay Topics: Just for Fun

101. Love and friendship
102. Apple and Samsung
103. Coffee and performance-enhancing drugs
104. Morse code and Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony
105. The moon walk and Gangnam style
106. Soccer and American football
107. McDonald’s and Taco Bell
108. Exercising and dieting
109. Xbox and PlayStation
110. Being single and being in a relationship
111. Growing a tree and raising a child

Compare and Contrast Essay Topics for High School Students:

112. Your childhood friend and your high school friend
113. Softball and baseball
114. Classes and extracurricular activities
115. School choir and school band
116. In-class activities and homework
117. Digital textbooks and hard copies
118. Comedy and drama
119. Being an only child and having siblings
120. Friends and family
121. Volleyball and basketball
122. Spring and fall

Compare and Contrast Essay Topics for College Students:

123. Going to grad school and working
124. Recycling and using a landfill
125. Living with parents and living alone
126. Study abroad and study at home
127. Following tradition and modernizing
128. Student clubs and Greek life on campus
129. Research papers and theses and dissertations
130. Early morning classes and evening classes
131. Writing and editing
132. Fiction and non-fiction
133. Memorizing material and understanding it
134. Citing sources and plagiarizing from them
135. Living in a dorm and living off campus

With such an extensive list of good compare and contrast essay topics, you’re sure to find something you can use in your paper.

Now that you’ve got some compare and contrast writing prompts for your essay, you’re ready to get started.

So what’s next?

Naturally, you need to start writing. But what if you don’t know how to begin the writing process?

Easy—just check out this WikiHow article for a great step-by-step guide to compare and contrast essay writing.

Still don’t feel confident about writing your paper?

The best way to learn something is by observing it, so you should definitely read some compare and contrast essay examples. For instance, try these resources:

• A fantastic example of a block method essay about two types of drugs
• A well-structured sample of a point-by-point compare and contrast essay about life in two different states

For a breakdown of the two compare and contrast essay types, check out this helpful video tutorial that explains the point-by-point and block methods.

And if you’re still having doubts about writing your essay, come to Place4Papers for help narrowing down your topic and crafting the best arguments.

Make sure to check out some more essay inspiration from us:

• Argumentative and persuasive essay topics
• Cause and effect essay topics
• Research paper topics

Best of luck writing your compare and contrast essay!