The two fundamental types of rolling bearing are distinguished by two basic types of rolling element. The two basic types of rolling bearings are shown below:

  Ball bearing

  Roller bearing

Are rolling bearings better? 

With minimal friction, rolling bearings support and guide rotating or oscillating machine elements – such as shafts, axles, or wheels – and transfer loads between machine components. Rolling bearings provide high precision and low friction and therefore enable high rotational speeds while reducing noise, heat, energy consumption, and wear. They are exchangeable and cost-effective machine elements that typically follow national or international dimension standards.

Ball Bearings	Roller Bearings
A ball bearing is a spherical unit that serves the same purpose as a roller bearing.	A roller bearing is a cylindrical unit that is used to provide low-friction movement for a bushing or bearing block.
Balls make point contact with the ring raceways.	Rollers make line contact with the ring raceways.
The contact point becomes an elliptical area with increasing load acting on the bearing.	The contact line becomes somewhat rectangular in shape as the bearing’s load increases.
A ball bearing can accommodate high speeds due to the low rolling friction provided by the small contact area, but this puts limits on its load-carrying capacity.	A roller bearing can support heavier loads but slower speeds than a ball bearing of the same size due to the larger contact area and resulting increased friction.
Pros: Low friction. Can handle pure radial loads, pure axial (thrust) loads, and combined radial and axial loads.	Pros: Able to carry greater loads without deforming or failing. More varieties of roller geometry for different types of operations.
Cons: Noisy at times. Incompetent at handling large weights. Easy to get damaged by shocks.	Cons: Very expensive. Limited capacity for thrust loads. Vulnerable to misalign from their original position.
Examples of applications:   Fans. Bicycles. Elevators. Gear boxes. DVD players.	Examples of applications: Pumps. Turbines. Conveyors. Rolling mills.