When choosing a bathtub, your attention should mainly focus on shape, size, material, and installation type. The wide variety of models available on the market today reflects the growing importance of the bathtub, which is no longer treated as a simple fixture but as a central element of the modern bathroom — one capable of combining modern design with genuine everyday comfort.
In this guide
Are Bathtubs Useful?
If every tub in a home is removed in favor of showers, homeowners should have legitimate concerns about resale value — it's worth keeping at least one tub if your home has more than one bathroom. If you have toddlers, young kids, or pets to bathe, a tub is genuinely useful. And if relaxing in a hot bath is your preferred way to unwind, a shower simply can't substitute for that.
One of the most common decisions when planning a bathroom is choosing between a shower or a bathtub installation. In both cases, design matters, but functionality, available space, and the needs of the people using the space matter even more — equipping a large bathroom is a very different exercise from equipping a small one, and the right choice for a single person living alone can look completely different from the right choice for a whole family. Weighing all of these factors means there are real advantages and disadvantages to each option, and they're worth thinking through carefully before committing.
The sophistication and elegance a bathtub brings to a bathroom is a major factor in why people choose to install one — a bathtub has a real capacity to become the visual centerpiece of the room, drawing together most of the space's decorative character and becoming the natural focal point. There are also plenty of highly contemporary, minimalist bathtub designs available today that can make a bathroom's interior design feel distinctive and genuinely upscale.
Another advantage of a bathtub over a shower-only bathroom is the ability to unwind in a proper soak after a long day — electronically equipped bathtubs and jacuzzi-style tubs have become increasingly common for exactly this reason. And if there's a whole family at home, having a functional bathtub is especially valuable, since it lets younger family members enjoy bath time and play while getting clean, in a way a shower simply doesn't allow for.
What Is The Difference Between a Jacuzzi and a Bathtub?
"Spa" and "Jacuzzi" are both commonly used as generic names for a hot tub. A hot tub, unlike a standard bathtub, is designed to accommodate more than one person at a time, with many models built to seat four or more. Hot tubs are typically installed outdoors, though indoor installations are possible too, and there's now a huge range of models, shapes, colors, and brands on the market, all designed to deliver the comfort and benefit of a home whirlpool.
Some people get confused about whether there's a real technical difference between a "Jacuzzi" and a "whirlpool tub" — there are even claims floating around that whirlpools use pressurized air while Jacuzzis use pressurized hot water instead. That distinction doesn't actually exist. A Jacuzzi is simply a whirlpool bathtub; the name persists because Jacuzzi is the company that invented the modern whirlpool bath, so in many countries "Jacuzzi" became a generic stand-in for "whirlpool tub" the same way "Kleenex" became shorthand for facial tissue.
The Jacuzzi company itself was founded in 1915 in Berkeley, California, by seven Italian immigrant brothers, initially manufacturing aircraft propellers and agricultural pumps — hydrotherapy wasn't part of the business at all until decades later. That changed because of a personal family need: Candido Jacuzzi, the youngest of the seven brothers, had a son, Kenneth, who developed juvenile rheumatoid arthritis after a bout of rheumatic fever as a toddler. The hydrotherapy sessions Kenneth received at the hospital eased his symptoms, but they were only available once a month, so Candido set out to build something the family could use at home.
He modified one of the company's agricultural pumps by adding an air intake and reversing the flow, then submerged the result in an ordinary bathtub of hot water, where it produced a strong jet of bubbles and the whirlpool effect the family needed. He filed a patent for the resulting device, the J-300, in 1954, and the Jacuzzi family began marketing it in 1956 — first to hospitals and schools as a therapeutic device, since at that stage it was still a bulky, standalone pump that had to be lowered into an existing tub rather than something built into the tub itself.
It took another generation for the product to become the built-in fixture we know today. In 1968, Roy Jacuzzi, from the family's third generation, designed and patented "the Roman" — the world's first self-contained whirlpool bathtub, with the jets integrated directly into the tub's structure instead of relying on a separate submersible pump taking up leg room. That innovation is what let the product move from hospitals into ordinary homes, and it's what made the Jacuzzi name globally recognizable. Worth noting: despite the name's Italian sound, Jacuzzi has always been an Italian-American company, headquartered in the United States since its founding — not a European brand, however often that assumption comes up. Today the brand offers everything from simple circular models to elaborate multi-person tubs with built-in HD televisions.
Which Is Better, Jacuzzi or Bathtub?
Because so many people use "Jacuzzi" and "hot tub" interchangeably, it can be hard to pin down what's actually being compared — but as covered above, there's no meaningful technical distinction between a Jacuzzi and any other whirlpool tub, just a brand name that became generic. What's really being compared, in most cases, is a still-water bathtub versus a whirlpool tub, and the two serve genuinely different purposes: one is meant purely for bathing, while the other is built around relaxation, hydrotherapy, and socializing.
Bathing itself, in some therapeutic form, has been used by people for medicinal and relaxation purposes for a very long time — the whirlpool tub is really just a modern, motorized descendant of that much older idea, made possible once Candido Jacuzzi adapted a hydraulic pump for home therapeutic use in the 1950s. Although hot tubs and whirlpool baths were historically seen as luxury items, that perception has shifted over the decades, as the technology has evolved alongside the broader wellness industry's focus on health and everyday well-being rather than pure indulgence.
A plain bathtub, by contrast, is a comparatively simple fixture: it has a drain, usually comes in an oval or rectangular shape, and the water inside stays completely still, since it has no jet system to move or aerate it. Thanks to advances in home wellness technology, whirlpool tub manufacturers have also developed additional therapeutic features like chromotherapy (color-based lighting) and aerotherapy (air-jet massage systems), along with smart-home integration that lets you schedule a tub's filling, temperature, and lighting from a mobile app before you even walk into the bathroom.
Now that you know there's no real difference between a Jacuzzi and any other whirlpool bathtub — and how a plain bathtub differs from both — you're in a better position to decide which option actually fits your bathroom and your family's needs.
Why Do Americans Have Bathtubs?
For early Americans, a bathtub was a genuine luxury: it allowed people to bathe in warm water at home instead of a nearby stream or river, and because water could be heated in smaller batches for a tub rather than continuously for a full plumbing system, it also meant using less firewood to get clean. Early tubs tended to be strictly utilitarian, while ornate copper tubs became a status symbol among the upper-middle class.
The American lifestyle and the European lifestyle differ in plenty of everyday habits, and that shows up in our homes too — including, somewhat surprisingly, in our bathrooms. Different lifestyles tend to be reflected in the spaces around us generally, from the layout of streets and buildings down to the design choices inside our own homes, since those spaces are ultimately shaped by daily habits.
The most notable differences between American and European bathrooms show up in layout, available space, decoration, and preferred materials and finishes. Americans tend to favor a large shower stall for extra comfort, while Europeans lean more toward the bathtub as the default. As with any generalization there are plenty of exceptions, and bathtubs are certainly common in American bathrooms too — but where they do appear, American tubs also tend to run noticeably larger than their European counterparts.
Another small but telling difference shows up in the showerhead itself: American showers typically have the showerhead fixed to the wall, while European bathrooms more often use a flexible handheld hose. American bathrooms also tend to be more spacious overall and better equipped with storage, and it's become common, especially for a bathroom attached to a primary bedroom, to include two separate sinks rather than one shared basin.
That extra storage space partly compensates for the absence of something standard in most European bathrooms: the bidet. American bathrooms generally don't include one at all — the closest equivalent found in some American homes is a small flexible handheld hose mounted next to the toilet. Without a dedicated bidet fixture taking up floor space, there's simply more room left over for other things, which is part of why larger auxiliary bathroom furniture — vanities, storage cabinets, and the like — shows up so often in American bathroom layouts.
