Both sites are constantly renovating their software and lobby to make the software experience one that players will enjoy. There are never lag issues with PokerStars while some report some issues with Full Tilt Poker. Full Tilt's recent upgrade shored up a lot of previous lag issues and introduced a new powerful lobby system with custom widgets. Both sites have a ton of custom filters for ring games and tournaments and straight-forward and easy-to-use table controls. In addition, there are plenty of table and card mods available for a customized experience. For players that like a graphically rich experience with all the bells and whistles, Full Tilt Poker wins out with the software.

Both sites have tournaments starting literally every single second of the day. Because of the large player pools, tons of multi-table tournaments and one table Sit & Gos are always running. Full Tilt Poker runs a popular tournament series in the FTOPS and MiniFTOPS series, while PokerStars counters with the SCOOP and WCOOP tournament series. Both sites have lots of destination satellite events as well as big guarantee tournaments on Sundays. You can't go wrong at either site

Full Tilt Poker offers a nice variety of poker games including HO, HORSE, HEROS, HOSE, RAZZ and Omaha games on top of all the various Hold'em games available. PokerStars does offer more in terms of a variety of games including 5 Card Draw, Badugi, HORSE, HEROS, HOSE, Mixed Games, Razz, Single Draw Lowball 2-7 and Triple Draw Lowball 2-7.

PokerStars has one of the better VIP programs for regular players. As you accumulate VIP points, your VIP level goes up which includes a FPP multiplier for more spendable FPP points. These points can be used for items in the store, tournament entries or cash bonuses. At Full Tilt Poker there's the Iron Man promotion which awards points for daily grinding which turn into medals. These medals can be used for cash bonuses or items in the special store but carry a lot less value than FPPs at PokerStars. However, Full Tilt has "Full Tilt Points" which can be used to buy into tournaments or items from the store (no cash though).

The good news is that you really can't go wrong here with either site. The general consensus is that PokerStars has a better player pool but because it's so big has more fish. Full Tilt Poker might have less players but a greater proportion of their players are bad. It's give and take but if customer service and a large player pool are important to you go with PokerStars. If finding the worst of the two sites' competition is important and you like swanky lobby software, go with Full Tilt Poker. Keep in mind, there's no reason not to join both!