Read the SERP for the keyword and let the searcher’s apparent goal decide: build a list or comparison page when they want options laid out to choose among, and a single verdict when they want a recommendation and the results reward a decisive answer. The format is not a fixed property of comparison keywords, it shifts with what the query signals and what is already ranking. The pivot is wants-options versus wants-a-verdict, and the SERP shows you which one is in play.
Most “X vs Y” and “best X” queries lean toward wanting options. The searcher is weighing alternatives and wants the choices put side by side: features, prices, pros and cons, the situations where each one wins. The ranking results will reflect this, comparison tables and roundups that lay the field out so the reader can pick. A list or comparison page serves that intent because it gives the searcher the raw material to make their own call rather than forcing one on them.
Other comparison queries signal that the searcher has already narrowed the field and wants someone to just tell them. The phrasing leans toward a single decision, and the SERP rewards pages that commit to a clear pick with the reasoning behind it rather than a neutral catalog. Here a single verdict page wins, because a searcher looking for “which one should I get” is frustrated by a fence-sitting list and satisfied by a confident recommendation backed by a short, honest case. The same keyword family can pull either way, so the verdict is not a default, it is a read.
For your comparison keyword, search it and study the top results before you choose a format. If they lay out multiple options in tables and roundups, build the list page that gives the searcher the field to choose from. If they commit to a clear pick and the query sounds like someone wanting to be told, write the single verdict and stand behind it. Let the SERP, not a habit, decide which page you build.