They are one in the same. Crock pot is the original brand name, by Rival i believe. Slow cookers are what the appliances are. Much like Kleenex is a brand name, but they are tissues in actuality. I prefer the older Crock pot by Rival. They are well built. I received 2 as gifts for my wedding 34 years ago. They are both still working great and that is with heavy use. We also have a newer SS Cuisinart digital slow cooker. It is fine, it seems to run hot as that is the most common complaint I here with other slow cooker owners. NancyLouise

In the 90s a friend came to my house for dinner. I made a chicken dish in my CROCK pot. I don't know if I called it a crockpot or a slow cooker. She decided she wanted one but she didn't look at mine. The next time I visited her she had this crockery oven cooker, that WAS a slow cooker but not a crock pot! She like it and still wanted a CROCK pot but had spent too much on the other cooker.

I agree with nancylouise. All crock pots are slow cookers, but not all slow cookers are crock pots. Like iphones are smart phones, but smart phones aren't necessarily iphones.

I didn't really follow what bleusblue2 said. Sorry.

Yep. Like Kleenex is a brand of tissue. But not all tissue is the brand Kleenex.

After years of using slow cookers, the very best cooking pots I've had are round and deep, not oval. My 1970s Rival Crockpot was still working in 2012 when I sold it in a garage sale for cosmetic reasons.

Ditto on musicgale's comments. I own my original Rival orange deep round crock pot from the 1970's. A few years a large oval slow cooker was purchased as I wanted a larger size occasionally. To me, it performed very poorly compared with the original Rival. I plan to sell, or give it away, and purchase another Rival from ebay to split large recipes between the two.

And for me -- too bad. Two months ago I gave my big Rival Crockpot to a friend who needed it. I have the oval four quart one and I was keeping the 6 quart one for special occasions. I must say that I haven't noticed a big difference in the oval one but that's because I have been eating a lot less meat and that's what I cooked for my husband. He never complained but I just don't know if there is a comparison or not.