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A comparison has been made between recurrent (associated with high-speed streams from coronal holes) and sporadic (caused by interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs)) Forbush decreases (FDs) in solar cycles 23 and 24 (as well as in the maxima of these cycles and the minimum between them). Forbush Effects and Interplanetary Disturbances database created and maintained in IZMIRAN provided a large number of events (about 1700 isolated FDs, among them 350 recurrent FDs, and 207 sporadic FDs selected with high reliability), which allowed us to apply statistical methods. The results revealed that sporadic FDs prevailed in the maxima of the cycles; recurrent FDs, in the minimum between the cycles. FD parameters (magnitude, decrease rate, anisotropy) are larger for sporadic events than for recurrent ones, especially in the maxima of the cycles. FD magnitude is greater in the maxima than in the minimum for sporadic events, and it changes weakly for recurrent ones. The solar wind velocity is on average greater for recurrent events than for sporadic ones; it is larger for recurrent FDs in the minimum and for sporadic FDs in the maxima. The magnetic field is stronger for sporadic FDs than for recurrent ones in the maxima and it is approximately equal for both types of events in the minimum. The magnetic field of ICMEs is weaker in the current solar cycle than in the previous one. The duration of the FD main phase is less in the maxima for both types of events; sporadic FDs developed significantly faster than recurrent ones in the maximum of cycle 23.