chess.com vs lichess: which is better?

I want to give my opinion first before reading previous comments so it would be as objective as possible. It's only my opinion:

1) chess.com and lichess.org have different mission.I view chess.com as an online business. They want money for everything: learning, analyzing, improving, better interface, playing simultans and so on. You want anything - pay for it, and I am sure they get more than tons of money from the ads! Lichess is free, there are no privileges for those people who have money and can afford paying for extra tools.

2) Skill. Chess.com has more better players, that is just a fact, BUT, unless you are a good grandmaster - who cares? I think only top blitz players out there can't find who to play against on lichess. From my experience I would say that chess.com has more cheaters. Thousands of games in history of player's profile does not indicate that a player there can't cheat for 1-2 games against you.

3) Tools. Again just like in the 1) lichess has same stuff, the only difference is that you don't have to pay for it.

4)Community. I was never insulted so far by my opponent on lichess! On chess.com every forth or fifth game I play, my opponent starts talking trash to me.

That's what I can say from my experience :)

I like lichess too, but people (well, one poster) should not write things like "chess.com is crap", it gives no credibility to their opinion.
One thing I'm lacking here : tournaments for low or mean level players. It's quite frustrating to play against players with 500 or even more points than us (and boring for them, I guess).
Have I missed something ?

"You can see all your games in chess.com for free. they released a new version three"

I checked and that's true. I could see my games. I looked at one of my games. Chess.com gave me 3 choices, an inferior computer analysis for free, and better computer analysis for money, and their best computer analysis for even more money.

This money nonsense made me hate chess.com even more. The place is pathetic.

At lichess I can use the best computer analysis in the world for free. Why would anyone pay those idiots at chess.com for something that's better and totally free at lichess?

And their website is sloppy. It looks like a mess unlike lichess which is beautiful and clean.

yes, lichess is very good for computer analysis,
Sometimes I play a game on chess.com then use lichess to analyse it. And if we posted a forum like this on chess.com they would delete it because they are afraid of lichess.

BUT chess.com has bughouse...

True lichess is better than chess.com.
But chess.com is a Californication company.

Lichess is better for playing if you're a club level player.
If you're a strong player then its true chess.com has a stronger field at the moment, but until you're ~2300/2400 FIDE, I think you'll find the competition on lichess is plenty challenging.

So basically, if you're looking to play games and youre U2400, Lichess is better.

If you're looking to improve and have quality study tools at your disposal, and you have some money to spare, chess.com is better for that.

I think we can conclude the Thibster has done a far better job in making lichess. Three cheers!!! !!! !!!

@ #26

While it is true that there aren't too many FIDE 2400+ players around on Lichess, in practice the waiting time to find games that level actually doesn't differ that much.

I remember many times doing a 2400/2500+ seek on CC and just giving up after 30 minutes or so.

lichess is much gentle on the eyes. as you can switch background color to dark much like the chesscube site does.

chess.com however is always the eyesore bright white background. strains the eye easily

in terms of premove quality, Lichess beats chess.com

the fun on chess.com is being an admin or super admin and managing your groups and tournaments.
But admins have to put up with lots of rude ungrateful complainers, so admins burn out fast. Forums are run by clans. Cheating is everywhere.
Lichess has not developed the groups' logistics, an essential part of chess.com's.
Nor does it have the articles and news.
But it is a MUCH more pleasant site to play on, with very civil people and plenty of good players, good enough for the vast majority of us.