•Monte Carlo DIVIMP and multi-fluid EDGE2D-EIRENE treatment of tungsten were compared.•Tungsten density predictions by DIVIMP and EDGE2D-EIRENE agree within a factor of 2.•DIVIMP predicts consistently 50% more tungsten than EDGE2D-EIRENE in attached plasmas.•The discrepancy is due to the bundling of tungsten charge states to 6 fluid species.•Using 22 tungsten species yields accurate tungsten charge but causes numerical errors. The average tungsten concentrations in the pedestal region (cW) predicted by the Monte Carlo code DIVIMP and the coupled multi-fluid plasma/kinetic neutral code EDGE2D-EIRENE are found to agree within a factor of 2 for a range of JET-ILW L-mode and H-mode plasma conditions. Under attached divertor conditions with cW exceeding 10−6, the cW predicted by DIVIMP is consistently ~50% higher than by EDGE2D-EIRENE. In colder plasma scenarios with cW<10-6, stochastic variations exceed the systematic disagreement between the two codes. The average tungsten charge predicted by EDGE2D-EIRENE in the upstream scrape-off layer is lower by 40–50% due to the bundling of the 74 tungsten ion charge states into 6 fluid species, which explains the reduced tungsten accumulation in the main plasma compared to the DIVIMP predictions.