The characteristics of Nodal FE bodies and Modal FE bodies are compared in the following able.
Figure 3.136: Comparison of Nodal and Modal FE bodies
| Contents | Nodal FE Body | Modal FE Body | 
| Generalized Coordinate | Nodal coordinate | Modal coordinate | 
| Small Deformation | Good | Good | 
| Large Deformation | Good | Bad | 
| Global Deformation | Good | Good | 
| Local Deformation | Good | Bad | 
| Stress/Strain | Good | Good for the small deformation | 
| Material | Linear and Non-linear | Linear | 
| Contact (Locality) | Good | Bad | 
| Mesh Work | Necessary | Necessary | 
| Eigenvalue Analysis | Needless | Necessary | 
| Degree of Freedom | Large | Small | 
| Solving Time | Slow | Fast | 
| Memory Requirement | Large | Small |