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These solve slightly different problems. A melt is fragrance you switch on; a diffuser is fragrance that is simply always there.
Strength: melts, comfortably
Heat drives evaporation, so a warmed melt puts far more fragrance into the air than reeds wicking at room temperature. A diffuser is designed to be noticeable when you walk in, not to fill a room. If you want a space to actively smell of something, that is a melt.
Effort: diffusers
A diffuser needs the reeds flipping every week or two and topping up every few months. That is the entire commitment. Melts need loading, lighting, watching and cleaning out. If you want fragrance you never think about, diffusers win outright.
Control: melts
You choose when the fragrance is on, how strong, and which scent, and you can change it daily. A diffuser commits you to one scent, at one level, continuously, for months.
Safety: diffusers, narrowly
A reed diffuser has no flame, though it does hold a bottle of flammable, staining oil that pets and children can knock over. A wax melt burner uses a tealight, so it needs the usual care: heat-resistant surface, clear space, never left unattended. See burner safety.
Cost: melts
A 100ml diffuser lasting three months typically costs more than three months of melts, and you cannot pause a diffuser when you are away, it evaporates regardless. Melts only consume fragrance when you are there to enjoy them.
Which room
- Hallway and downstairs loo: diffuser. Constant low-level scent in a space you pass through, no upkeep.
- Living room: melts. You want to be able to turn it up in the evening and off when you go to bed.
- Bedroom: diffuser, if you dislike anything burning while you sleep.
- Kitchen: melts. You need something strong enough to work against cooking smells on demand.
- Bathroom: diffuser, or a small melt in a stone burner.
The honest answer
Most homes want both: diffusers in the pass-through spaces where upkeep is annoying, melts in the rooms people actually sit in. They are not really competitors.
Shop wax melts, or a stone burner like the Soapstone Oil Burner (Hamsa) shown above for the bathroom.
