Difference between a Company and Partnership

No	A Company	Partnership
1	Mode of Creation: A company comes into existence after registration under the Companies Act, 1956.	Mode of Creation: In the case of a Partnership firm registration is not compulsory.
2	Legal Status: A company is a body corporate. A Company has a legal personality distinct from that of its members.	Legal Status: Partnership is an unincorporated association of Individuals. A firm is not a distinct person; it is made up of the several persons who Compose it.
3	Numbers of Members: The maximum numbers of shareholders in a private company is fifty. There is no statutory limit to the maximum number of members in case of a public company.	Numbers of Members: The maximum number of partners in a firm carrying on business can be ten and in any other business twenty.
4	Liability of Members:  The liability of members of a company (except an unlimited one) to contribute toward satisfaction of the company’s debts and liabilities is limited.	Liability of Members: In the case of Partnership firm liability of partners to contribute toward the payment of the partnership’s debts and liabilities is unlimited.
5	Management: The affairs of a Company are managed by its directors, or managing directors or manager and its members have no right to take part in the management.	Management: In the case of Partnership, Every member of a partnership may take part in its management unless the partnership agreements provide otherwise.
6	Transferability of interest: Shares in a company are freely transferable unless its Article otherwise provides.	Transferability of interest:  In partnership, a partner cannot transfer his share without the consent of the other partners.
7	Authority of members: A shareholder is not an agent of the company.	Authority of members: Each partner is an agent of the company.
8	Powers:  A company’s powers are limited to those allowed by the objects clause in the memorandum.	Powers: a partnership firm can do anything which the partners agree to do and there is no limit to its activities.
9	Insolvency, Winding up of Company: The winding up of an insolvent company does not make the members insolvent.	Insolvency of a firm: The insolvency of a partnership firm means insolvency of all the partners.
10	Debts: If a Company owes a debt to any of its members he can claim payment out of its assets when it is wound up rateably with its other creditors.	Debts:  A Partner who is owed money by his firm cannot usually prove against the firm’s assets in competition with its other creditors.
11	Dissolution: A company comes to end only when it is wounding up according to the provisions of the Companies Act.   A company has a perpetual succession. No personal circumstance affecting a member, such as death, insolvency or unsoundness of mind, will affect its existence.	Dissolution:  Unless a partnership is entered into for a fixed period, it may be dissolved at any time by any partner, and every partnership will automatically be dissolved by the death or insolvency of a partner.