Small holes and chips in both drywall and plaster walls can be fixed with spackle. Plaster, on the other hand, can only be used on plaster walls. Plaster walls are an alternative to sheets of drywall, and they are usually found in older buildings.
Spackle dries faster than plaster and only needs one coat to be put on drywall. Since the differences between drywall mud, joint compound, and real spackle are so small, the word “spackle” is often used to refer to all three. But spackle comes in different textures, called grains, that range from light to heavy. For smaller repairs, light spackle is used, while heavy spackle is used for bigger repairs. There is only one type of consistency for joint compound. Spackle also dries faster than joint compound or drywall mud. Spackle is better for fixing small holes than for putting together big pieces of drywall.
Walls in old buildings are often made of plaster. Small amounts of plaster can be used to fix holes and nicks in these buildings. When fixing plaster walls, most people put on two or three coats of plaster. Each layer has to dry, or cure, before the next one can be put on. This means that fixing walls with plaster can take longer than fixing them with spackle.
