Some differences
Common  frogs are a light brownish green color, which helps them to stay camouflaged at the bottom of a muddy pond, or in a pile of damp leaves. Toads that live in temperate regions are usually brown and olive in color, while those in the tropics are brighter in color.

Frogs have smooth, moist skins, whilst toads are dry and warty-skinned. Secondly, frogs have long powerful hind legs, which they use for swimming and jumping. Toads, on the other hand, have shorter legs and can only crawl along.

A third difference, you might not be able to see easily is that while most frogs have teeth, most toads have none. Also toads lay lesser number of eggs than frogs. A toad lays between 4,000 and 12,000 eggs every year, while a female bullfrog may lay anywhere between 18,000 and 20,000 in a year.

A frog spawn (mass of eggs laid in still water) is quite easy to spot as it settles near the surface of the water in large round clumps, while a toad spawn is laid in long strings.

The two tadpoles:
As we have mentioned earlier, similarities between the two, which are perhaps more in number than dissimilarities, begin right at the egg laying stage (except, of course, the number of eggs laid). The eggs of both look like specks of dust floating on top of the water in a jelly-like substance. After one or two weeks, tadpoles begin to emerge from the jelly-like spawn, which they feed on during their first few days before moving on to nibble at algae with their rasping teeth. At this stage, the tadpoles look more like fish, with gills and a long swimming tail, than frog or toads. They breathe through the gills like a fish.

It takes around twelve to fourteen weeks for tadpoles to develop further and the process of change is known as 'metamorphosis’. At the end of this stage, the tadpoles drop their gills and tail and develop legs and lungs. The last stage, after which the tadpole becomes a frog or toad could take up to one year!