As we know that there are different market structures in the econnomy as perfect competition, monopoly, oligopoly and monopolistic competition. Every market structure is having it's own characteristics that make it different from other market structure.

Monopoly is a market structure in which the single firm is the seller of the product with restrictions to entry of others firm's. The word monopoly has been derived from two words as "mono" meaning one and "poly" means to sell. This their is only one seller of the product. The monopoly firm is the price maker and there is also price discrimination in monopoly.

Monopolistic competition on the other hand means a market structure in which there is which there is large number of buyers and sellers. The sellers are selling the differentiated products in monopolistic competition. There is no restrictions to entry and exit of firm's. The firm's are spending lot of money on advertising to make the products more familiar to the buyers.

In monopoly there are different buyers and one one seller while as in monopolistic competition there are large number of buyers and sellers.

In monopoly the product does not have close substitutes. On the other hand there are large number of substitutes for the product in monopolistic competition.

There are barriers to entry in monopoly and same barriers are not present in monopolistic competition.

In monopoly demand curve is steep while as in monopolistic competition the demand curve is flat.

In monopoly price is controlled by the single seller while as in monopolistic competition the sellers are not able to control the price while as buyers have some control.