A society is a non-commercial organization, form for the promotion of the object like art, culture, science, religion etc.

 

Under the provisions of Section 25 of the Companies Act, 1956, a company can also be formed for non-profit objectives. These may not be charitable. These companies are also allowed to drop the words 'limited' or 'private limited' from their names. The promoters while deciding whether to register themselves as a society or as section 25 company may keep the following distinctive feature in mind:

 

Features	Society under Societies Registration Act, 1860	Company under Section 25 of the Companies Act, 1956
Objects	Charitable, literary, scientific, etc,	Non-profit activities
Formation	Procedure is simple and easy	Procedure is complicated
Name	Selection of name is not difficult	Name has to be got approved from the Registrar of the Companies
Management	Management of society is easy and simple and not much restrictions imposed under the Act	Provisions of the Companies Act have to complied with and/or complex and laborious, rigid and time consuming
Meetings	Annual meeting of society has to be held as per provisions in the Act.	All the meetings are to be held as per provisions of the Companies Act, 1956
Penalties	Very few offences and penalties have been prescribed	Provisions under the Companies Act are more stringent and attract more penalties.
Reputation	Registered societies enjoy same reputation as companies	Companies enjoy reputation of status
Legal Entity	A registered society is a legal entity with certain limitations	A registered company is a legal entity.