It's always been a conundrum to decide which of these tests are the best, especially when it comes to comparing IELTS with TOEFL and GRE with GMAT.

In order to decide, you have to know what is each test made for, so let's start:

IELTS:

The most renowned and recognized English test in the world. It's owned by Cambridge, the British Council and IDP Australia. It has different modules but the most famous modules are General training Module for immigration and Academic module for studying abroad.(Mostly required by UK, Australian and Canadian governments and institutes). The validity of the test is 2 years.

Both modules test your Reading, writing, listening and speaking skills and give an overall score band ranging from 0-9.

It can be found in paper based and computer formats.

TOEFL:

The test is accepted by many English-speaking academic and professional institutions. TOEFL is one of the two major English-language tests in the world, the other being the IELTS. It's also a trademark of the Educational Testing Services (ETS), which also owns the GRE. It has the same validity as the IELTS.

TOEFL tests the same skills as IELTS, but with a slight change in the question format, where the writing section may have a recording where you need to include an overview about it in your writing.

It can be found in computer based and paper based forms.

So, which one is "the one"?

When it comes to choosing between TOEFL and IELTS, first you have to know what you're taking it for and who you're going to present it to, as many institutions may accept IELTS but not TOEFL and vice versa.

Some institutions may accept converted scores from IELTS to TOEFL scoring system or vice versa, so as you can see, it's crucial to know the institution(s) rules and requirements before registering at any test.