Purpose/significance Scientometrics and informetrics respectively belong to science of science and information science, and they have coincidence in theory, methods and technology applications. The analysis of the similarities and differences between these two can help to deepen understanding, and help to accurately grasp the meaning and direction of the relevant terms. Method/process This paper collected the samples of scientometrics and informetrics from the aspects of representative journals and keyword retrieval. It also compared the similarities and differences of the distribution of publications and cooperation between the two subjects from the perspective of states, organizations and authors, clustering keywords to analyze the similarities and differences of subject structures between the two subjects. The citation behavior and knowledge flow of these two were compared from the perspectives of literature co-citation, author co-citation, journal co-citation and subject overlay diagram. Result/concl