Sicilian VS French: Which is better?

I'm looking for a response to King's Pawn Opening  that can surprise people, so I want to pick between Sicilian Defense and French Defense. Can anyone help point out weaknesses and strengths in the two openings?

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Neither the Sicilian nor the French Defence will surprise people.

I would use Sicilian. But that's just me.

I would think most people would be familiar with both. Caro-Kann (1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5) has been played at top level against 1. e4 and I've never played against it as white here on Chess.com. Any Caro players out there?

Neither will surprise someone, and neither is better than the other since they are not the same opening, and they both have merits that the other doesn't provide without one being considerably worse than the other. I personally love the advanced French as black and I love to play against the Sicilian as white. 

These are both extremely mainstream openings. For a surprise opening against 1.e4, I like the Nimzowitsch Defense, 1...Nc6. It gets the white player out of book immediately and leads to interesting fighting positions. I've successfully used it in last-round must-win games with black in multiple tournaments.

I only play Sicilian, and I think it is versatile. I can play a lot of different styles, like , dragon, hyperaccelerated, Paulsen or classic- The problem with sicilian is that it takes long time to learn it, because it has very many possibilities, and is attacked in a lot of differnet ways.

I had some problems earlier  with facing the French while I play white, but lately I started to outplay frenchplayers severly , players that is rated 300 above me.  It looks like they becomes slow against the exchange variation.

It has nothing to do, French is very solid and much more passive, defensive and easier to play. Sicilian is  more offensive, more counter attack options, has more theory, it depends of your style, have a look in any data base to see what kind position you prefer. I personally think Sicilian is better in fact is probably the most played with difference, there are players that change from e4 to d4 just to avoid Sicilian. That is my view, but both are very good openings. I

Depends on what positions you feel comfortable in. I would try all openings and and see what positions you like. 

French is easier. There are thematic plans that come up in almost all variations. 

Sicilian is a cluster. It's massive to learn

Still a beginner, obviously (although not as bad as my chess.com rating would have you believe) but from what I've seen, the sicilian really doesn't catch anyone off-guard, even at lower ratings, and it's hella complex to study and learn properly. The French is similarly not going to surprise anyone, although it's easier to learn.

Of course, there's the scandi, which no one seems to expect at least from who I've played. As far as getting white out of their preferred openings, it should work well.

Of course, this all depends on your style, so play around with different openings online. Personally, I find it hard to play more hypermodern openings, so I'm not a big fan of positions like the Nimzowitch

my opinion is that you should play the french since it is very positional, but if they play the exchange variation against you its a dead draw

     IMHO, the Sicilian is more difficult to play, but you will win more games with the Sicilian:  French Defense is easier to play and more fun, but you will not win as many games. 

     Theoretically, the French Exchange Variation may be a dead draw, but imperfect humans are playing and in my experience I have some of my best results when I have Black and my opponent plays the Exchange Variation.  The pawn structure may be symmetrical, but the placement of the pieces can be asymmetrical and Black can fight for a win.

How would you respond in a must-win situation using 1...Nc6 against 2.Nf3? It seems to me that everything other than 2...e5 (going back into white's theory) is somewhat inferior, with the only alternative being the Colorado gambit (2...f5), which I find a suspicious choice. 

In before the lock!

I've had a few draws in this line.

@notmtvain The spam was accidental, I rarely go on forums so I don't know how to do edit.

@Other people Do you have any suggestions for lesser known openings against King's Pawn?

You're not likely to surprise anyone, but the choice of openings depends on your style and skill level. The French Defense is a more closed opening, where strategic knowledge is nearly as important as tactics, where you may have trouble getting your QB or your KN into the game and have to know how to position them early so they eventually end up where it helps the most.  In the Advance Variation, White's pawn on e5 will delay Nf6 and you may find yourself in positional maneuvers trying to limit White's likely K-side attack.

The Sicilian Defense, especially the standard opening where White stupidly (in my opinion) trades away his QP for Black's QBP on move 3 and makes multiple early moves with his KN, is more of a wide-open Napoleonic (Attaque! Attaque! Toujours attaque!) onslaught where Black announces with move 1 that he's coming after White's Q-side.  Tactics are supreme here!  Additionally, there are many more variations commonly played than in the French, so Black can gain an advantage by playing lines White probably hasn't memorized.

Personally, I've come to love, as White, the c3 (Alapin) Sicilian that begins 1 e4 c5 2 c3 where White's obvious intent is to later play d4 and fight for central control built around two center pawns.  It's still an open game but a little more positional and, as John Emms points out in his Starting Out: The c3 Sicilian, White has much fewer lines to memorize than with 2 Nf3 3 d4.  It keeps Black from choosing an opening line (Accelerated Dragon, etc.) he likes best and where he may know some traps or strategies favorable to Black and where White's possible lines tend to be wide-open attacks (Morra Gambit, Richter-Rouser Attack, etc.).  In all cases, a huge body of possible lines needs to be memorized.

IF you want to surprise someone early, you might want to look at something that's not recently popular, like Petroff's Defense (1 e5 e5 2 Nf3 Nf6).

1.e4 Nc6 2.Nf3 d6.

This looks like a weird Pirc, but it's actually different. Black wants to get the c8 bishop out, followed  by e7-e6 and d6-d5, getting a French-like structure but without the bad bishop. Alternatively, esp. if white tries extra-hard to prevent this, black will try to get a favorable version of the Pirc or King's Indian. For example:

(1) white simply develops naturally [these moves are not forced, but they're normal, decent moves] -

3.d4 Nf6 4.Nc3 Bg4 5.Be2 e6 6.0-0 d5. Now white will usually play 7.e5, and after 7...Ne4 black will saddle white with doubled pawns and work on long-term pressure against them. Of course, white can play 7.exd5, and black has to either go into a risky position after 7...Nxd5 8.Nxd5 Qxd5 9.c4, or accept a symmetrical pawn structure after 7...exd5. But there are ways to "shake the boat" even in that structure.

(2) white tries to prevent the above setup and punish black for his weird opening moves [the below is an actual tournament game I had: must-win last round situation; white didn't play the best way, but he is a 2300 player, and this illustrates the point] -

3.d4 Nf6 4.d5 Nb8 5.Bd3 Nbd7 6.0-0 Nc5 7.Re1 Nxd3 8.Qxd3 g6 9.c4 Bg7 10.h3 0-0 11.Nc3 e5.

This looks like a classical King's Indian. Black is behind by 3 tempi, but those tempi were used by white to play Qd1-d3, Rf1-e1, and h2-h3. All useless moves, and h2-h3 is actually harmful. On the other hand, black has the two bishops, and it's very hard for white to defend the kingside without the white-squared bishop. I went on to win a one-sided game (Nf6-h5, f7-f5, etc.).