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:- Talking to friends and texting them
- Winter holidays and summer holidays
- Photos and paintings
- Email and pigeon post
- Fruits and vegetables
- Social media and face-to-face communication
- Childhood vs adulthood
- Cash and credit cards
- Books and movies
- Cats and dogs

Compare and Contrast Essay Topics for Beginners
- Handwriting and typing
- Animals in the zoos and animals in the wild
- Driving a car and using public transport
- Using Uber and taking a cab
- Traveling with friends and traveling solo
- Homeschooling and attending a public school
- Physical beauty vs inner beauty
- Coffee and energy drinks
- Facebook and Twitter
- Studying in high school and attending college
- Paper bags and plastic packaging
- Giving presents and receiving presents

Compare and Contrast Essay Topics: Natural Sciences
- Mountains and volcanoes
- Apples and tomatoes
- Ants and bees
- Nuclear power vs solar power
- Rainbows and lightning
- Frogs and toads
- Gasoline and biodiesel
- Melons and citrus fruit
- Volcanoes and earthquakes
- Tornadoes and blizzards
- Sugar and salt

Comparison and Contrast Essay Topics: Humanities and Social Studies
- Revolution and evolution
- Christopher Columbus and the first astronauts
- Anorexia and obesity
- A sentence and a phrase
- Online education and traditional education
- Greek vs Roman mythology
- Protestantism and Catholicism
- Socialism and capitalism
- Poetry and prose
- Inventions and discoveries
- Sci-fi and fantasy

Compare and Contrast Essay Topics: People
- Justin Bieber and John Lennon
- Oprah Winfrey and Tyra Banks
- Leonardo Da Vinci and Steve Jobs
- William Shakespeare and Petrarch
- Thomas Hobbes and John Locke
- Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin
- Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin
- Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth I
- Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela
- Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois
- Thomas Jefferson and John Adams
- George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush
- Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley
- Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton
- Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus
- Mother Teresa and Angelina Jolie

Compare/Contrast Essay Topics: Popular Culture
- Graffiti and Black Square by Kazimir Malevich
- Twitter and newspapers
- OkCupid and Tinder
- Reality TV shows and YouTube videos
- Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings
- The Hunger Games and Divergent
- Modern dancing and classical or ballroom dancing
- TV shows and comic books
- Rap and hip-hop
- The Twilight saga and Dracula
- Star Trek and Star Wars
- Facebook comments and class discussion

Comparison Essay Topics: History
- The Roman Empire and the British Empire
- The Soviet Union and communist China
- World War I and World War II
- The American North and South during the Civil War
- Slavery and indentured servitude
- The Salem witch trials and McCarthyism
- The civil rights movement and the women’s suffrage movement
- The assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Abraham Lincoln
- The ideas of Karl Marx and Soviet communism
- The French Revolution and the Russian Revolution
- The Vietnam War and the Iraq War
- The Holocaust and the Rwandan genocide
- The League of Nations and the United Nations
- The Arab Spring and the Prague Spring

Ideas for Compare and Contrast Essays: Uncategorized
- Marriage and civil unions
- The influence of parents and the influence of peers
- Texting while driving and skydiving
- Learning Chinese and learning Latin
- Going to the movies and watching Netflix
- Being boring and being bored
- Windows and Linux
- Public schools and charter schools
- Your current car and your dream car
- Owning property and renting it
- Reading and listening to audiobooks
- Speed dating and speed networking
- Teenagers and toddlers
- Studying all night and partying all night

Compare and Contrast Essay Topics: Just for Fun
- Love and friendship
- Apple and Samsung
- Coffee and performance-enhancing drugs
- Morse code and Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony
- The moon walk and Gangnam style
- Soccer and American football
- McDonald’s and Taco Bell
- Exercising and dieting
- Xbox and PlayStation
- Being single and being in a relationship
- Growing a tree and raising a child

Compare and Contrast Essay Topics for High School Students:
- Your childhood friend and your high school friend
- Softball and baseball
- Classes and extracurricular activities
- School choir and school band
- In-class activities and homework
- Digital textbooks and hard copies
- Comedy and drama
- Being an only child and having siblings
- Friends and family
- Volleyball and basketball
- Spring and fall

Compare and Contrast Essay Topics for College Students:
- Going to grad school and working
- Recycling and using a landfill
- Living with parents and living alone
- Study abroad and study at home
- Following tradition and modernizing
- Student clubs and Greek life on campus
- Research papers and theses and dissertations
- Early morning classes and evening classes
- Writing and editing
- Fiction and non-fiction
- Memorizing material and understanding it
- Citing sources and plagiarizing from them
- 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:
Best of luck writing your compare and contrast essay!