A single lever is easier to use; two handles are easier to repair. That is the whole trade, and everything else follows from it.
The single lever
One ceramic cartridge does both jobs: flow and mixing. It is quicker, it works with a wet or full hand, and when it wears you change one part. The part is the cartridge, and its diameter is what you need to know before you can buy one.
The two-handle mixer
Each handle is a separate valve, usually with a replaceable head or a washer. Nothing about it is convenient, and that is not always the point: on a basin used at one temperature, two handles let you set the hot side once and never touch it. The spares are older, cheaper and more widely stocked.
What decides it in practice
The tap hole count in your basin. A basin drilled with one hole takes a single-lever mixer and nothing else; a basin drilled with three takes a two-handle set. That is not a preference, it is a fact about the ceramic you already own, and it settles most of these decisions before they are made.
Questions people actually ask
Can I fit a single-lever mixer to a three-hole basin?
Not directly. Cover plates exist that span the three holes and present a single hole, and they are visible. The reverse — a three-hole set on a single-hole basin — is not possible at all.
Which type drips first?
Neither reliably. A two-handle tap drips when a washer or valve head hardens, which is a cheap fix; a single lever drips when the cartridge wears, which is a slightly less cheap fix. Both are spare parts rather than reasons to replace the tap.
Last reviewed 5 September 2026