How compares Cannes to Nice?

I have been to Nice twice and for my next holiday we are planing to visit Cannes. Which city is the better and why?

Both cities are very nice places. Nice is a large city, with an airport, a large commercial port and round the year business activity. It has also a large education area, with universities and the famous Sophia-Antipolis technology zone (not far from the city). Cannes is a smaller town, mainly living on tourism in summer and different events and congresses (Festival de Cannes for movie industry, and until 2003 the GSM World Congress for mobile telecommunications...). Cannes is more touristic, it can be "empty" sometimes in winter.
The whole French Riviera coast is attracting business and investments lately. Enjoy your trip !

I live in Nice and I don't like making comparison between Cannes and Nice just because you can't compare :

Nice = 345,000 inhabitants
Cannes = 80,000
The size is really different.

I like both cities. I often go to Cannes for shopping because there are many good stores on the rue d'Antibes and because works for the tramway construction in Nice make life difficult.

You don't compare them. As it has been said the size is too different.

I'm not too much fond of Cannes. Once you walk the rue d'Antibes, and the Croisettes, there isn't much left too do. The old town is nice (but very small). All the rest is residencey quarters mostly

I would say that Cannes is better than Nice : Nice is a dirty city (with a nice old town though) Cannes has more places to go out at night and a beautiful historic town center as well.
I would definitely advise Cannes

How compares? Visiting both, that's easy. You'll have your own opinion. Each has a charm and it depends of what you want to do or to see.

Which city is better for a vacation between those two? I think Nice, personally. It's true, Nice is dity and busy, but I think there is more to do because it's bigger. You can't go wrong in Cannes, per se, and if you've stayed in Nice twice I would go with Cannes this time around. All the Cote Azur towns are connected by rail...so you can easily go from one to the other. So if you stay in Nice it's wasy to visit Cannes for a day, and it's also easy to hop in a car and drive the other direction onto Monte Carlo for the day....that's where I'd want to stay on my next trip over there.