ESTPs and ENTPs are closely connected personality types but their sensing vs. intuition power sets them apart from one another. Both these types are easy going, rational thinkers because of their common thinking and perceiving functions.

Read on to analyze more about these two personality types and know which type you belong to.

ESTP vs. ENTP

ESTP personality types are sensing individuals. It means they take things one at a time depending a lot upon sensory stimulations. 

They are also thoughtful, curious, and spontaneous. Being an extrovert, they are socially vibrant and love interacting with many people at a time. At the same time, they prefer to live life actively, with a lot of energy and enthusiasm. They prefer adventure, live in the moment, and are poor long term planners.

The ENTP personality type is an intuitive thinker. They never decide just like that, but will look into the details of the matter before arriving at a consensus. 

ENTPs are socially active, curious, and love to discuss and debate about various known and unknown issues. 

They are fluent speakers and can deliver engaging speeches in front of others. That’s why they are able communicators and inspiring orators.

ENTPs prefer being in the crowd because of their relaxed and easygoing nature. They can bring joy and optimism with their flexible mindset. ENTPs love serious discussions and prefer to give useful suggestions to others for an overall community building.

ESTPs share many qualities with an ENTP. Both are extroverts who love to talk, interact, and communicate efficiently in public places. Both love to express themselves logically. Their feeling function is poor so you cannot expect them to have a lot of empathy, compassion for others.

They are not unkind but find it hard to express emotionally or connect with other persons at deep emotional levels.

Now, let us analyze the similarities and differences of these two Myers Briggs type.


The points of similarities between ESTP and ENTP

ESTPs and ENTPs share three cognitive preferences. Both are extroverts with thinking and perceiving functions dominating their personality type. This makes them outgoing and spontaneous, people friendly and talkative personality types.

They share some similar behavioral traits such as the following:

  • ESTPs and ENTPs are outgoing and proactive types.
  • They are energetic and lively people.
  • Being spontaneous, they are open-minded and flexible, adaptable to changing circumstances as well.
  • Their social charisma is mesmerizing. Others look up to them with a sense of awe.
  • They are light-hearted and can improve the mood of other fellow beings.
  • ESTPs and ENTPs are socially active and engaging.
  • They are ideal negotiators and can persuade others easily.
  • Both these personality types thrive well in groups because of their ability to lead and convince others quite easily.
  • ESTPs and ENTPs prefer new experiences. As both belong to the perceiving types, they remain open to change. They will easily get bored with monotonous activities.
  • Both are non-judgmental in nature.
  • Both these personality types understand the hidden motives of others.
  • ESTPs and ENTPs are logical thinkers. Thus, both of them prefer straight talk and elaborate communication styles.
  • They are not emotional types and never bring emotions to discussion and decision making.
  • Both love to experience changing circumstances that provide an opportunity for new learning.
  • They are less organized and systematic people. Their household will look messy and unorganized but they never get upset with it.
  • Both ESTPs and ENTPs may procrastinate and prolong their decision making process. Ultimately, you may find them doing none.
  • ESTPs and ENTPs are less proactive with routine and consistent work. Their fickle-minded nature comes in the way of accomplishing such tasks.
  • Both ESTPs and ENTPS have extroverted feeling as a tertiary function. This means they are less emotional and more logical-minded.

ESTP vs. ENTP – The Key Differences

ESTPENTP
ESTPs love adventure, fun, excitement in their daily life. Monotonous things are hard to bear.ENTPs love debates, theories, discussion, abstract ideas, etc. they like to think over many different things from varied perspectives.
ESTPs use their sensory stimulations to perceive data from the outside world. This makes them detail-oriented. They decide on the spot and hardly think about the Past situations.ENTPs have strong intuition, they use their gut feeling to analyze the recent picture of a situation and then develop patterns to comprehend what might happen in the future. Most often they analyze past events to make sense of their present and future.
ESTPs struggle with routine jobs. They prefer new things every day to be incorporated in their work schedule.ENTPs also like novelty and dislike routine work. But when the need arises, they do not make any fuss and try to complete the work in the best possible way.
ESTPs hate micro-managing. Neither do they neither do it with others nor allow others to use it on them. They prefer flexibility in workplaces otherwise they feel stuck and boxed in unnecessarily.ENTPs also hate micromanagement but if the work is interesting, they’ll compromise and adapt themselves to the sayings and instructions of others. If the need arises, they will allow others to control their behavior.
ESTPs are sensing personalities. They will scan the event in detail before arriving at a conclusion.ENTPs are future focused. Since they have strong intuition power, they prefer to foresee future possibilities of an event. 
ESTPs love public attention. They crave people’s appreciation and want to be in the spotlight.ENTPs also like public gatherings but they are more tuned towards an inner intuitive world that makes them a low-key socialite. Thus, they do not crave public attention at all.
ESTPs prefer exploration and hands-on learning. They learn through direct and concrete life experiences and real-life examples. ENTPs like long conversations. They prefer debates, elocutions, discussions, and learn from others’ ideas and experiences. They think deeply over abstract issues that are not always based on real life experiences.
ESTPs love to offer practical problem solving strategies.ENTPs love to offer innovative, creative solutions.
ESTPs are more grounded in reality.ENTPs may be found to build castles in the air.
ESTPs work with tangible and concrete data. They cannot handle projects that are not set by defined rules.ENTPs play with ideas and abstract ideologies. They love to brainstorm.
ESTPs can manage stress better than ENTPs because they are present focused and likes to ENTPs may break down in times of stress because they use introverted intuition as a dominant cognitive function. This means they may become irritated and overwhelmed in times of stress.
ESTP vs. ENTP

To Sum Up

Although they are not the same in their dominant functions, both these types can relate well with each other in their personal and professional lives. 

ENTPs can participate in new experiences with an ESTP while ESTP can engage in thoughtful conversations with ENTP.