Is it better to have tesol or tefl certificate when teaching abroad?

Basically, they mean nearly the same thing - they both allow you to teach English to non-native English speakers. The correct (but rarely used) distinction is that teaching TESOL means you're in a native English speaking country, teaching non-native speakers, while TEFL means you're in a non-native English speaking country, teaching English as a foreign language.

If you're interested, TESOL stands for Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, and TEFL means Teaching English as a Foreign Language. The yardstick to measure quality really comes from whether the TEFL or TESOL course is an online or face to face course that involves classroom teaching, and also how many hours it takes.

The most well respected is a 120 hour face to face course with at least 6 hours of classroom teaching practice. Our company offers a 40-hour TEFL certificate that is completed online before our teachers arrive. Once they are here, they receive enough training that it becomes a 120-hour TEFL certificate with a face to face component and classroom teaching practice.