Hire vs. Rent — What's the Difference?

To employ someone temporarily or permanently.

To pay for the temporary use of a property or item.

To engage services for a short period.

To let out property for income.

Obtain the temporary use of (something) for an agreed payment

To occupy rented property.

Employ (someone) for wages

Payment, usually of an amount fixed by contract, made by a tenant at specified intervals in return for the right to occupy or use the property of another.

The action of hiring someone or something

A similar payment made for the use of a facility, equipment, or service provided by another.

A person who is hired; an employee

The return derived from cultivated or improved land after deduction of all production costs.

To engage the services of (a person) for a fee; employ

The difference between the price paid for use of a resource whose supply is inelastic and the minimum price at which that resource would still be provided. Also called economic rent.

To engage the temporary use of for a fee; rent

An opening made by rending; a rip.

To grant the services of or the temporary use of for a fee

A breach of relations between persons or groups; a rift.

To obtain work

To obtain occupancy or use of (another's property) in return for regular payments.

The act of hiring.

To grant temporary occupancy or use of (one's own property or a service) in return for regular payments

The condition or fact of being hired.

To be for rent

Payment for services; wages.

A past tense and a past participle of rend.

Payment for the use of something.

A payment made by a tenant at intervals in order to occupy a property.

(Informal) One who is hired

A similar payment for the use of a product, equipment or a service.

Payment for the temporary use of something.

(economics) A profit from possession of a valuable right, as a restricted license to engage in a trade or business.

(obsolete) Reward, payment.

An object for which rent is charged or paid.

The state of being hired, or having a job; employment.

(obsolete) Income; revenue.

A person who has been hired, especially in a cohort.

A tear or rip in some surface.

(transitive) To obtain the services of in return for fixed payment.

A division or schism.

(transitive) To employ; to obtain the services of (a person) in exchange for remuneration; to give someone a job.

(transitive) To occupy premises in exchange for rent.

(transitive) To exchange the services of for remuneration.

(transitive) To grant occupation in return for rent.

(transitive) To accomplish by paying for services.

(transitive) To obtain or have temporary possession of an object (e.g. a movie) in exchange for money.

(intransitive) To accept employment.

(intransitive) To be leased or let for rent.

(transitive) (neologism) (in the Jobs-to-be-Done Theory) To buy something in order for it to perform a function, to do a job

Simple past tense and past participle of rend

The price, reward, or compensation paid, or contracted to be paid, for the temporary use of a thing or a place, for personal service, or for labor; wages; rent; pay.

That has been torn or rent; ripped; torn.

A bailment by which the use of a thing, or the services and labor of a person, are contracted for at a certain price or reward.

To rant.

To procure (any chattel or estate) from another person, for temporary use, for a compensation or equivalent; to purchase the use or enjoyment of for a limited time; as, to hire a farm for a year; to hire money.

To tear. See Rend.

To engage or purchase the service, labor, or interest of (any one) for a specific purpose, by payment of wages; as, to hire a servant, an agent, or an advocate.

To grant the possession and enjoyment of, for a rent; to lease; as, the owwner of an estate or house rents it.

To grant the temporary use of, for compensation; to engage to give the service of, for a price; to let; to lease; - now usually with out, and often reflexively; as, he has hired out his horse, or his time.

To take and hold under an agreement to pay rent; as, the tennant rents an estate of the owner.

Engage or hire for work;

To be leased, or let for rent; as, an estate rents for five hundred dollars a year.

Hold under a lease or rental agreement; of goods and services

An opening made by rending; a break or breach made by force; a tear.

Engage for service under a term of contract;

Figuratively, a schism; a rupture of harmony; a separation; as, a rent in the church.

To pay for the use of something temporarily.

Income; revenue. See Catel.

To contract a professional for specialized tasks.

Pay; reward; share; toll.

To add to a team or workforce.

A certain periodical profit, whether in money, provisions, chattels, or labor, issuing out of lands and tenements in payment for the use; commonly, a certain pecuniary sum agreed upon between a tenant and his landlord, paid at fixed intervals by the lessee to the lessor, for the use of land or its appendages; as, rent for a farm, a house, a park, etc.

That portion of the produce of the earth paid to the landlord for the use of the "original and indestructible powers of the soil;" the excess of the return from a given piece of cultivated land over that from land of equal area at the "margin of cultivation." Called also economic rent, or Ricardian rent. Economic rent is due partly to differences of productivity, but chiefly to advantages of location; it is equivalent to ordinary or commercial rent less interest on improvements, and nearly equivalent to ground rent.

A regular payment by a tenant to a landlord for use of some property

An opening made forcibly as by pulling apart;

The return derived from cultivated land in excess of that derived from the poorest land cultivated under similar conditions

The act of rending or ripping or splitting something;

Let for money;

Grant use or occupation of under a term of contract;

Engage for service under a term of contract;

Hold under a lease or rental agreement; of goods and services

To make a contractual arrangement for temporary usage.

To grant temporary use of property for payment.

Rent typically refers to paying for the temporary use of property like a car or apartment.

Hire generally refers to paying for services or labor for temporary or permanent use.

Rent is usually a short-term arrangement, although it can be extended through renewals.

In some contexts, you can "hire" equipment, especially in British English, but in American English, we usually say "rent" for equipment.

Hires, hiring, hired are common verb forms.

Typically, both involve some form of agreement or contract.

Rent is most often used for property but can extend to any good that is borrowed for a fee.

Yes, companies often hire employees and rent equipment or property.

In some contexts, they may be, but they generally have distinct meanings.

While commonly used in employment contexts, "hire" can also mean contracting for short-term services.

Yes, you can hire an employee for long-term or permanent employment.

The main difference is that hire focuses on labor or services, while rent focuses on property or goods.

It's unusual; typically, one would "hire" for a service.

In American English, you would typically "rent" a house, not "hire" it.

Rents, renting, rented are the common verb forms.