Should Investors Ditch Uber and Buy Lyft Stock?

Key Points

• Uber is growing faster than Lyft.

• Uber has more optionality to serve its customers.

• Lyft stock trades at a much cheaper valuation.

• 10 stocks we like better than Lyft ›

Lyft (NASDAQ: LYFT) or Uber (NYSE: UBER)? That's the question millions of rideshare customers ask every weekend. They should also be asking is which stock is best for their portfolios.

Historically, Uber has outpaced Lyft, with its stock generating a total return of 137% since going public compared to a 56% loss for Lyft. As the larger player with its hands in more sectors (such as food delivery), Uber has reigned supreme with its $200 billion market capitalization. However, 2025 has been the year of Lyft's turnaround. The stock is up 75% year to date (YTD), beating the performance of its archnemesis.

Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Learn More »

Should you follow this market trend, ditching Uber and buying Lyft stock instead? Let's do a side-by-side comparison to see which stock is better for your portfolio today.

Image source: Getty Images.

Which one is growing faster?

One of the first items any investor should look at is revenue growth. When looking at Uber and Lyft, it is clear which one as a whole is growing faster: Uber.

Uber's revenue grew 18% year over year last quarter to $12.7 billion. Lyft was still growing at a double-digit rate, but only by 11% year over year to $1.6 billion. Not only is Uber significantly larger than Lyft, it is actually growing much faster. That is notch one on Uber's belt.

While Uber's revenue as a whole is outpacing Lyft's, this may be due to its exposure to international markets that Lyft does not operate in, as well as its food and grocery delivery business. Lyft CEO Dave Risher says that Lyft's share of rides in the United States has grown from 26% to 27% when he joined in 2023 to 30% to 31% today. This is a fantastic sign, albeit one that may have come from reduced fares on Lyft rides since Uber's revenue growth has not missed a beat even with this reduction in market share.

Uber's increased optionality

Both rideshare operators have membership programs, partnerships with autonomous driving companies, and deals with credit cards to drive customer loyalty to their respective services.

What Uber has that Lyft doesn't is optionality. This is a term that means how easily a company can add on new products or services to sell to existing customers. Lyft is known as simply an operator of rideshare services in the United States. Uber operates globally and also offers food delivery, grocery delivery, rental cars, and other services for its app users. Customers expect to be able to order virtually anything they want on the Uber app, while Lyft is restricted to just ridesharing at the moment.

Lyft may be able to add new products over time, but Uber has proven a better ability to scale beyond its original business.

LYFT PS Ratio data by YCharts.

Lyft is cheaper, but does that make it a buy?

Uber wins the battle on both revenue growth and optionality (which can drive future revenue growth). Another important variable investors need to look at is valuation.

Lyft is not very profitable today, although it has made some major improvements in the last few years. In order to do an apples-to-apples comparison, investors can look at both stocks' price-to-sales (P/S) ratios. With similar business models, a P/S ratio will show the valuation in comparison to future profit potential for these respective businesses.

Today, Lyft has a P/S of 1.55, compared to 4.49 for Uber. Uber trades at a P/S of over 3x its rival, which throws a wrench in the works when deciding which stock is a better buy. As duopoly players in the lucrative North American rideshare market, I think both stocks will do fine for investors over the long haul. But if I had to pick one to buy today, it would be Lyft. The company has plenty of room to expand its profitability, is still growing in the double digits, and has a significantly cheaper valuation.

That gives Lyft the edge over Uber, for now.

Should you invest $1,000 in Lyft right now?

Before you buy stock in Lyft, consider this:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Lyft wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $657,110!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,093,751!*

Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 1,064% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 190% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.

See the 10 stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of September 22, 2025

Brett Schafer has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Uber Technologies. The Motley Fool recommends Lyft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.