Botox vs Dysport vs Daxxify: Neuromodulators Compared

The short answer

They all work. Every approved neuromodulator is a botulinum toxin type A that blocks acetylcholine release at the neuromuscular junction, and in trained hands the results converge. The differences worth choosing on are onset speed, how far the product spreads from the injection point, and how long it lasts. If a practice such as Anne Therese Aesthetic Medicine stocks several, the choice is yours to make on those three axes.

The five products at a glance

How they actually differ

Start with the molecule. The active neurotoxin is essentially the same across all five. What differs is what surrounds it. Botox, Dysport and Jeuveau carry accessory complexing proteins; Xeomin is stripped of them, which is the basis of its argument about reducing the chance of developing neutralising antibodies over years of treatment. Daxxify replaces human serum albumin with a stabilising peptide, and that formulation is what underpins its longer-duration claim.

Then spread. Dysport diffuses further from the injection point than the others. That is an advantage across the forehead, where broad even relaxation is the goal, and a liability around the eyes, mouth and brow, where a millimetre of unwanted spread can drop an eyelid or flatten a smile. Injectors who like Dysport tend to use it for large flat areas and reach for something more contained on delicate work.

Finally, units. This is where people lose money. Dysport units are not equivalent to Botox units, with the conversion commonly worked at somewhere near two and a half to one, and every brand has its own scale. A clinic advertising a low per-unit figure for Dysport is not offering a discount, it is quoting a different unit. Always compare the total price for treating the same area, and ask how many units of that specific brand your treatment requires.

Duration is the last axis, and it is the least predictable. The three-to-four-month figure quoted for most brands is a population average, not a promise. Muscle mass, metabolic rate, exercise volume and dose all shift it, and heavy endurance athletes commonly report shorter results across every brand. If your results consistently fade at ten weeks, the fix is more likely to be a higher dose or better placement than a change of product.

Worth separating from all of this is the question of what a neuromodulator can address at all. These products relax muscle, so they soften lines caused by movement: frown lines, forehead lines, crow’s feet, a dimpled chin, a gummy smile, platysmal bands. Static creases already etched into resting skin need resurfacing or filler alongside, and no brand in the table changes that. Choosing between products is a small optimisation compared with choosing the right category of treatment in the first place.

What each one costs

Neuromodulator pricing varies by region, by injector experience, and by whether the practice bills per unit or per treatment area, so there is no reliable national figure to quote here. Ask three questions instead. What is the all-in price for the areas I want treated? Which brand and how many of its units does that cover? And is a two-week review included if the result needs adjusting?

Manufacturer loyalty programmes are worth factoring in, since Allergan, Galderma, Merz, Evolus and Revance all run point or rebate schemes, and being locked into one ecosystem is a genuine cost of switching brands.

Who should choose which

Choose by timing and anatomy. If you have an event in four days, Dysport or Daxxify give you the fastest onset. If you want the longest interval between appointments, Daxxify is the product designed for that, at the cost of thinner long-term real-world data. If you have been treated for years and feel your results have weakened, ask about Xeomin, since the absence of complexing proteins is the one meaningful mechanistic difference in that conversation.

Choose Botox if you are new to injectables, treating a delicate area, or simply want the option with the deepest evidence base and the most injectors experienced in using it. And whichever brand you pick, weight the injector far above the product. Brow position, eyelid heaviness and a frozen upper face are consequences of placement and dosing, not of the label on the vial. Bring photographs of your own face at rest and in full expression to the consultation, and book the two-week review, because small asymmetries are easy to correct then and impossible to correct at week ten.