Rapid v Daily

What are people's opinions on playing Rapid versus Daily games in order to improve? I have only just started playing and have found that the more rushed format leads me to make more mistakes  Am currently only ranked 800 at Rapid but when I have more time to think in Daily I have seen my rank in that format increase to 1100.

Would welcome thoughts.

I think both have their merits. I mainly play Daily but spend more time studying that word otherwise be spent on rapid so it partly depends how you like to divide your time. Rapid is a broad church covering from 10 minute games up to classic time controls so it depends what you are playing. 45|45 might be a great way to improve, G10 less so. Both are rapid.

While playing rapid games (long time control) you will practice playing overall the best chess you can provide. 

In daily games, you will have even more time, so you will further reduce mistakes. There are downsides however. First of all, while playing Daily games, you can look at opening databases or books (that don't have engine evaluations implemented in them) so, opening play is much easier in Daily chess. Apart from that, you have analysis board embedded inside the game, so you can make moves freely inside it. That is fine, but that way it is much easier to calculate than in live longer time control games.

I like daily to be honest, it might even help you out to learn some openings because it is encouraged to look up the variation you are playing, but you certainly need live games in order to really practice those moves without looking. And as it is easier to visualize, daily chess will not really improve your visualization. 

So my final verdict: daily is better for your chess than speed chess, and you might play some games there, you will certainly improve your game playing daily, but if you have to choose, longer live games are better for improvement. 

Both are good. I'd recommend not playing too many daily games at a time though, because you'll end up just blitzing out moves and not really thinking.

Perhaps if you play 3-5 daily games and then play some rapid games whilst you're waiting for your moves, that would be best.

Rapid is great because you get to finish the game within an hour (usually) and can immediately analyse it and see where you went wrong. But daily is great for learning openings (since you're allowed to use books and databases) and making long, deep calculations on an analysis board.

Rapid is not far off a lot of tournaments if you play the longer variations, eg 15 min/ side is fairly common at small tournaments.   10/5 is good too, it encourages you to learn your openings and simple endgames so you can move fast and keep the clock on your side, yet gives plenty of time for the critical midgame moves.  

+1