THE SIMS 4 COTTAGE LIVING V.S THE SIMS 4 ECO LIFESTYLE

They're both good and really compliment each other very well, both have a lot of good gameplay, and are great for playing off the grid.

I chose cottage living because I like the theme better, country life over industrial city life, and the family gameplay is a lot stronger with kids able to help with the animals.

Cottage living will probably win, a lot of people feel the eco genre is like “preachy” or whatever as they don’t believe in global warming etc.. but honestly Eco is the better pack, and feels way more like an EP than cottage living, which similar to IL feels more like a GP..

Eco has a way more interesting map, and comes with loads more new lot types, more aspirations, more personality traits and more new skills than cottage living. The new pollution system works across the entire game like seasons does btw.. there’s nothing like this added with cottage living.
Vastly more Bb added with eco vs cottage, but ultimately it depends on your aesthetic. Eco is very modern/ industrial vs Cutesy cottagecore in cottage living.

The only major plus with cottage is the new farm animals, but honestly they are kinda tedious in comparison to cats and dogs. I think the team has mistaken tedious gameplay for the more challenging..? And you can order groceries I guess?

I feel eco got a lot of hate when it came out and is severely underrated, especially compared to minimal packs like cottage living/ seasons which everyone seems to love.. ?

Eco lifestyle added one of the most complex systems in the way the eco footprint works. It does affect, like the others said, every part of the game. I also like the grunge aesthetic and the industrial b/b. The community lots make the world feel more alive and juice fizzing is one of the most fun skills ever.
Cottage living on the other hand has one of the most fun challenges you can play in this game in simple living. Also the world is very beautifull.
I chose eco because I think that in the long run raising animals is going to get boring.

I have both - I bought Country Living on release and Eco Lifestyle a few days ago.

Country living is a must if you like animals, farming, gardening, the country side in general. For my gameplay these things are central, so this game pack is fantastic for me.

Eco Lifestyle has a lot of gameplay and cool BB and CAS stuff, yet, after 1 day I personally felt I had no more interest in playing with it. Two of its main features are the NAP voting and the Eco Footprint, which I keep disabled ( you can disable them in the game options). Note that if the option of disabling them hadn't been available I wouldn't have bought the game at all.
Another thing to keep in mind is that Eco Living might still be a bit glitchy. I had never had any problems with my game, even after buying Cottage Living but as soon as I got Eco Lifestyle, a lot of things have stopped working. I don't use mods or CC, and had all patches, so it was really disappointing.

The two main features of Eco Lifestyle are not working properly, so I'd go for Cottage Living, which I personally really enjoy.

I honestly can’t pick between either. They both have pros and cons. I enjoy both, and think they both provide long term fun.

Eco Living- I like the new traits, lot traits, gameplay objects, job, community spaces, BB and CAS. I find the world a let down but liked the new apartments. The Naps were also a huge nuisance, I keep them disabled. I sometimes add them to my neighborhood but very rarely.

Cottage Living- I love the world, it feels like a community were everyone knows each other. The NPCs/townies and the quest add to my love of the world. It is small and can feel isolated from other worlds. But this can depend on your play style. The Lot trait Simple living is a must for me. I’m going to add it to every household I play. It’s great for Family play. I’m really enjoying living off the land. The animals are all adorable and well done. But if you want a big farming/industry farming pack this might not be for you.

The biggest plus of both these packs is that you can use them in any world and I think that different parts are easy to integrate to existing saves.

I think @ddd994 summed up my answer for the most part so I won't repeat it. But I do believe that eco and cottage living goes hand and hand. Depends on what your playstyle is of course they combine really well. Eco definitely brought more nitty gritty stuff like flies and roaches and dumpster diving. I love that. The pollution system I use everywhere. The cottage core astehitic is not my taste but I was able to utilize things in it that fit well with my playstyle. The animals are great of course but there is only so much you can do with them. Love the world but not into open country style. So it all depends. I choose Eco

Personally I feel they compliment each other well. It was a very close tie for me between the two. I love the cottage farm life and certainly do not find it boring in any way. But then I don't feel a need to rush through everything. The Laid back life is great. I currently combine the off the grid and simple life as it offers me not only more gameplay but also more challenging gameplay.

Either way you choose you win. But once you can combine the two it gets even better. <3

If you are just going with the amount of content that you get for your money then Eco Lifestyle wins. The pack has more build/buy items than Cottage Living and you can spend a lot of time making all your worlds green or industrial with the eco footprint.

But Cottage Living is really good too. Eco Lifestyle have a lot of questionable game design with the NAP's which I just find annoying and the weird bug farms and the Meat Wall. Cottage Living doesn't have that, the gameplay in Cottage Living works better and feels more thought out.

They have equivalent gameplay addons in my opinion - for me it's Chickens VS Water collectors/solar panels. Both packs adds things to the self sustaining gameplay which I love. Eco lifestyle has more objects and the features impacts the gameplay more, but that can be more intrusive aswell such as NAPs that are a bit hit and miss depending on how you play. But yeah, they're equal in total gameplay. It's matter of what you enjoy more playing off the grid and other self sustaining game play, although I personally think Eco adds more overall.