With countless sales taking place throughout the year, it can be difficult to determine the best time to make a big purchase.
Should you wait for more exclusive events such as Prime Day, or does the tried-and-true Black Friday reign supreme? On the other hand, do the two shopping events offer such similar discounts that it’s too difficult to compare?
We explain everything there is to know about how Prime Day compares to Black Friday below, including any caveats that might restrict shoppers from favouring one over the other.
To help you prepare before a big sale, we’ve put together a guide on how to spot a great deal and what to avoid, so you don’t needlessly splurge.
Prime Day is a member-exclusive sale
Not only is Prime Day exclusive to the Amazon platform, but it is also only available for Prime members. That means it isn’t enough to simply have an Amazon account to access the deals; you’ll need to be either a paying member or take advantage of a free trial during the Prime Day shopping event.
On the other hand, Black Friday can be found across multiple retailers, both in-store and online. Sure, some retailers do offer paid-for incentives such as early access to deals or perks such as free delivery, but generally speaking, Black Friday rarely requires a subscription.
Black Friday happens at the same time every year
One of the most annoying aspects of Prime Day is that, although we can estimate when the next event will occur based on previous years, there isn’t an exact date to look out for.
Black Friday operates differently. Although deals do tend to sprout up earlier in the month, Black Friday itself is the day after the US holiday Thanksgiving, which is always the last Thursday of November. Cyber Monday, subsequently, is the following Monday after Thanksgiving and Black Friday.
Are Black Friday deals better than Prime Day?
Whether deals on Black Friday are better than Prime Day, or vice versa, is a debatable topic. While we touched upon this in Black Friday vs Cyber Monday, we’ll take a deeper dive here.
Firstly, it’s worth noting that we’ve seen huge price drops during both Black Friday and Prime Day sales events, with many hot-ticket items reaching their lowest ever prices during the respective events.
However, the main difference between Prime Day and Black Friday is that the former is exclusive to those who are subscribed to Amazon Prime. Sure, some eligible customers can nab a free trial for Prime Day, and Prime members can benefit from plenty of perks including next and even same-day delivery, access to Prime Video and more, but it’s still something to keep in mind.
In comparison, Black Friday is found across numerous retailers, including Amazon but also John Lewis, AO, Currys and more in the UK, alongside Walmart, Best Buy and more in the US.
While many products from the best headphones to best laptops can see discounts during Prime Day, as it’s an Amazon exclusive event it’s arguably best suited for nabbing Amazon-branded products with a price cut. Even so, that’s not to say that you won’t be able to nab a bargain Amazon Echo or Kindle during Black Friday, it’s just that the price drops might be larger during Prime Day.
When is Black Friday on Amazon?
Although Black Friday is officially on 28th November 2025, we know from experience that retailers tend to start their Black Friday deals earlier than this and Amazon is no exception. At the time of writing, Amazon is yet to officially announce the date of its Black Friday sale.
Last year, Amazon’s Black Friday sale event ran from November 21st up to December 2nd, which meant it started eight days before the official date of Black Friday.
