Juvederm vs Restylane: Differences, Cost and Which Is Better

Juvederm and Restylane are rival families of injectable hyaluronic acid (HA) gel fillers, both formulated with lidocaine.

The Juvederm products in this guide are Allergan's and Restylane is Galderma's line, per FDA approval records: FDA approved the original Restylane gel on March 25, 2005, for moderate to severe facial wrinkles and folds such as nasolabial folds, with a lip indication added in 2011 and a lidocaine version, Restylane-L, in 2012.

Because each approval belongs to one product and one area, the clearest way to see the difference is product by product.

The dates are FDA approval dates:

The table is not the whole map: Restylane Lyft also carries approvals for the back of the hands (2018) and the chin (November 2025), and per FDA's approval records the only US fillers with a jawline indication are Juvederm Volux XC and Radiesse (+) — so jawline injections of Lyft, or of any other filler in these families, are off-label.

Chemically, the families are close: both are crosslinked hyaluronic acid gels with lidocaine.

Allergan says several Juvederm products are made with its proprietary VYCROSS technology, which blends different molecular weights of hyaluronic acid.

Galderma's Restylane gels — Kysse, Lyft and Eyelight among them — are described in their labeling as hyaluronic acid generated by bacteria and crosslinked with BDDE, at 20 mg/mL with 0.3% lidocaine; the original 2005 Restylane is Galderma's NASHA gel.

What neither company's labeling provides is proof that one brand's gel feels softer or firmer in the skin: the technology names are the manufacturers' marketing terms, and we found no head-to-head trial comparing the two families on feel or firmness.

If gel texture matters for your area, a provider who injects both families can share clinical experience — not label data.

Restylane's lip approvals came first: the original Restylane gained a lip augmentation indication in 2011, Restylane-L the same in 2012, Silk followed in 2014 for lips and perioral lines, and Kysse was approved in March 2020 for lip augmentation and correction of upper perioral lines.

Juvederm's lip approvals came with Ultra XC in September 2015 and Volbella XC in 2016 for lip augmentation and perioral lines.

The newest lip approvals in the table — Volbella (2016) for Juvederm, Kysse (2020) for Restylane — are both FDA-approved for lip augmentation and perioral lines.

Duration is where the comparison gets slippery, because each maker publishes a different kind of number.

Allergan says Volbella XC lip results can last up to 1 year with optimal treatment — an upper bound, not a typical result.

Kysse's pivotal trial instead tracked the share of subjects still rated responders for lip fullness: 88% at week 8, 77% at week 24 and 60% at week 48.

A manufacturer's "up to" and another product's trial curve are not comparable, and with no head-to-head trial between the two in the labeling we read, there is no evidence basis for calling either lip filler better or longer-lasting.

For the wider market, our comparison of the best lip filler brands and types uses the same label evidence, and we have dedicated guides to Juvederm lip filler (Volbella vs Ultra XC) and Restylane Kysse.

Juvederm Voluma XC was approved for cheek augmentation to correct age-related midface volume deficit in October 2013, by deep (subcutaneous and/or supraperiosteal) injection in adults over 21; Allergan later added chin augmentation (2020) and temple hollowing (2023) to its label.

Restylane Lyft was approved for cheek augmentation and correction of age-related midface contour deficiencies in July 2015, adding the back of the hands in 2018 and the chin in November 2025.

Galderma's own site maps two products to the cheeks: Lyft and the newer Restylane Contour, approved in 2021.

As of October 20, 2026, the fillers with an FDA-approved cheek or midface indication are Juvederm Voluma XC (2013), Restylane Lyft (2015), Restylane Contour (2021), RHA 4 and RHA Dynamic Volume (2025) and saypha ChiQ (2026) — Sculptra's separate cheek approval (2023) covers fine lines and wrinkles in the cheek region, not cheek augmentation.

The only head-to-head we found in either family's labeling is not Voluma against Lyft: it is Galderma's pivotal trial of Restylane Contour against Voluma XC.

Blinded evaluators rated 91.2% of Contour subjects versus 87.7% of Voluma subjects responders at week 12, and 62.8% versus 65.1% at week 48 — similar results that traded places over the year, in a trial Galderma ran that was not designed to show either product superior.

Allergan says Voluma XC cheek results last up to 2 years with optimal treatment; that wording is an upper bound with a condition attached, not a typical duration, and we found no comparable duration figure published for Lyft or Contour.

Under the eyes, each family has exactly one approved product, and together they are two of only four US fillers with an infraorbital (under-eye hollow) indication as of October 20, 2026.

Juvederm Volbella XC was approved for improvement of infraorbital hollowing in adults over 21 on May 28, 2021; Restylane Eyelight followed on May 8, 2023, for the same indication in patients over 21.

The other two are Belotero Balance (+) Lidocaine (2023) and RHA Redensity Eye / Eye Lido (2026, adults 22 or older).

Injecting any other filler under the eyes — including Voluma XC or Restylane-L — is off-label.

Both approvals cover hollowing, not dark circles.

Galderma's site promotes Eyelight to "correct dark circles," but the FDA indication is hollowing only, and Eyelight's own label warns that injecting people with pigmented dark circles may make discoloration more prominent.

In Eyelight's trial, 87.4% of treated subjects were responders at month 3 versus 17.7% of untreated controls, and blinded-evaluator responder rates fell to 63.5% at month 12; the label caps treatment at 1 mL per side per session.

Allergan says Volbella XC results in the under-eyes last up to 1 year with optimal treatment, and says Volbella should be injected into the under-eye hollows only by doctors who have completed its training for that area.

Neither maker publishes a price on the pages we checked as of October 20, 2026, so there is no official Juvederm-versus-Restylane figure to compare.

Allergan says only that Juvederm pricing varies by the product used, the amount used and the provider; in the sources we checked as of October 20, 2026, we found no manufacturer-published price for any specific Juvederm or Restylane product.

Galderma's Restylane site points patients to its ASPIRE rewards program instead.

The one national figure is the American Society of Plastic Surgeons' average cost of $715 for hyaluronic acid fillers per its latest statistics — a physician-fee average that puts both families in a single category and is not a med spa price.

Treat any per-syringe quote as specific to that practice, that product and that amount.

Longevity does not compare cleanly either, because the brands publish different kinds of numbers.

Allergan's durations are "up to" figures with optimal treatment: up to 2 years for Voluma XC in the cheeks, up to 1 year for Voluma XC in the chin, up to 13 months for Voluma XC in the temples, up to 1 year for Volbella XC in the under-eyes and up to 1 year for Volux XC in the jawline.

The Restylane labeling reports trial responder rates instead: Kysse's lip-fullness responder rate fell from 88% at week 8 to 60% at week 48, and Eyelight's under-eye responder rate fell from 87.4% at month 3 to 63.5% at month 12.

A maker's maximum and a trial percentage are different units, so "which brand lasts longer" has no evidence-based answer.

Because every approval in this comparison belongs to one product and one area, the useful version of the question is not "which brand is better" but "which product is approved for the area I want treated." Both families cover smile lines, lips, cheeks and chin with approved products.

Juvederm holds the only approved jawline filler of the two (Volux XC, 2022), Restylane holds the back-of-hands approval (Lyft, 2018), and under the eyes the label-approved options are Volbella XC and Eyelight.

On results, the only head-to-head we found — Galderma's cheek trial — found similar responder rates that shifted over time, and we found no claim in either company's labeling that its product outlasts the other's.

So the comparison is less brand versus brand than the match between the specific gel, the area and the injector's training.

Worth asking any provider before you book: which exact product they plan to use and why; whether that use is on the product's current US label; what training they have for the area; and how the quote is built — per syringe, per area or as a package.

Which gel fits your case is a judgment for the licensed provider who examines you; this page can only set out what each product is approved for and what the trials measured.

Both families have their own guides on this site: the Juvederm guide covers each product's approvals, cost structure and safety profile, and Restylane does the same for Galderma's line.

Reading them before a consult means you can name the products and check them against what the practice actually stocks.

Where a maker sets its own training bar for a delicate area — as Allergan does for Volbella XC under the eyes — ask directly whether your injector meets it.

Then treat the consult as the comparison: which Juvederm and Restylane products the practice carries, who will do the injecting and with what training, and how the price is quoted.

A practice carrying only one brand should be able to explain its reasoning for the area you are considering.