BACKGROUND No controlled data is available till date comparing topical tazarotene and clobetasol in Indian psoriatic patients. OBJECTIVE The aim was to compare the clinical efficacy of 12 weeks of once-daily tazarotene 0.1% cream with that of once-daily clobetasol propionate 0.05% cream in the treatment of patients with chronic plaque psoriasis. METHODS About 36 patients with bilaterally symmetrical lesions were enrolled in this double-blind randomized controlled study. A left-right randomized study was conducted. RESULTS Clobetasol cream was better than tazarotene cream in reducing the erythema throughout the treatment period with statistically significant differences favoring clobetasol at weeks 2, 4, 6 and 8 ( P <0.05). Tazarotene was better in reducing the induration at weeks 2 ( P <0.05), 4, 10 and 12. Clobetasol cream was better in reducing the scaling throughout the treatment period with statistically significant differences favoring clobetasol over the entire treatment period. Treatment success rate was 100% with clobetasol and 88% with tazarotene at the end of week 12 with clobetasol achieving 100% success rate at the end of week 6. Treatment with tazarotene resulted in uniform reduction of plaque elevation and was not associated with the development of hot spots. CONCLUSIONS Topical tazarotene 0.1% cream is less effective than topical clobetasol propionate 0.05% cream in the treatment of plaque psoriasis. It has more effect on induration than on erythema and scaling of psoriatic lesions.