Soft forks are less disruptive than hard forks because a crypto network can continue to operate as one blockchain even if some nodes disagree with the changes. Hard forks, on the other hand, create two blockchains that coexist, and nodes must upgrade their software to validate blocks in the new chain.

Soft forks are used by developers to implement less drastic changes, and the process is typically viewed as a gradual upgrade. Hard forks, on the other hand, are typically used to make radical changes to a cryptocurrency protocol.
Previously, crypto networks such as Bitcoin and Ethereum used both soft and hard forks to update their protocols.