What do you use to ferment in?

I've noticed a lot of brewers on here use carboys to ferment. Is there a difference between using a carboy and a bucket?

For beer - a 6gal carboy (glass or better bottle). Being able to see what's happening is helpful to me. And, it's entertaining!

For wine - a bucket for the primary. Not as much to worry about with wine. And, not as exciting to watch.

I just use buckets. I have them lined up in the kitchen. I guess clear carboys are cooler and fun to watch, but either one works fine.

I use better bottles. Buckets work fine.

Someday in the future, I'll use stainless conicals.

Beer is in a 6 gal HDPE bucket.

Apfelwein is done in a 5 gal glass carboy.

I'm optimistic that there is a SS conical in my future...

generally buckets allow easier acessability as well as allowing more oxygen to diffuse through the walls. For certain types of beers such as sours it allows more of that "sour" character for which the yeasties and other bacteria need more oxygen. They are also alot easier to clean due to the large opening and are great if you need a defacto second fermenter for emergencys. I use glass carboys because they never wear out or scratch and dont allow any oxygen to get through which can oxidize beer or wine over time. The downside of a glass carboy is that they can shatter and injure you quite easily. Better bottles are hdpe plastics aurguably allowing minimal oxygen if any through and they never break. You can also get ported versions with a racking apparatus which allows sampling of wine or beers without opening the carboy which can risk contamination of your beer.

Buckets! Or that 5 gallon water cooler jug I found.

6 gal glass carboy. Wouldnt use anything else. Dont have to worry about scratch's at all. yes there is the breaking downside to them...But to me i treat them like they are crystal and worth $100,000.00 a piece. Yes they may only be 30 bucks or so...but thats a batch of grain!!!

buckets are to easy to scratch, and it only takes one groove for bacteria to grow.

Yes sanitiser works great...but you cant sanitise a turd per say. You may make the outside of the bacteria clean..but if it breaks off...might as well stick a dirty sock it the beer.

Even if you are super super good at getting everything clean, And soaking it in oxy overnight it only takes a little bit to get a infection.

Lots of people use buckets and have good luck with them.
I am just not comfortable of looseing 4hrs of time and $$ to risk a infection on a cheap bucket.

But i am a guy when it comes to beer...I sanitise everything maybe way to much and often...But i havent had a infection yet " knock on wood"

Just my .02 cents on it