One similarity between the renaissance and the enlightenment

There was a spirit of inquiring around. Questions were being asked. People wanted to know things they hadn't cared about before. 

People were challenging traditionally held beliefs. The Church was not regarded as the only place for answers anymore. This ties in with questioning. People would be told things, but was not until around these periods (as well as the Age of Exploration, Reformation and Scientific Revolution) that people started asking "why?" 

Ideas were spread through the relatively new type of printing, the movable type printing press invented by Johannes Gutenberg. The Renaissance and Enlightenment would not have been able to spread without the increase in the publication of books, pamphlets, and other writing methods. 

Humanism. Humanism is the view, originating with the ancient Greeks, that humans should want to know about things other than what they know. This view dominated all others in these periods. 

Differences- 
The Renaissance was the "rebirth" (that's literally what it means) of classical ideas. The Enlightenment was about social standing and government. 

The Renaissance was very influential on the years after it because it sparked the ideas of the Age of Exploration, Reformation, Scientific Revolution, and Enlightenment. By the time of the Enlightenment, people were more open to these kinds of ideas and new beliefs. 

Many monarchs supported the Enlightenment, such as Frederick the Great of Prussia, Catherine the Great of Russia, and Joseph II of Austria. The Renaissance was more about the average person. 

The Enlightenment caused wars. The Renaissance was just new ideas, but in the Enlightenment, these ideas got really used and put into action. The result: revolutions. Some examples: the French Revolution, the American Revolution. These wars were caused because people supported Enlightenment ideas and wanted to use them
. The result could be wonderful (look at the American government system, democracy) or devastating (The French Revolution became a bloodbath, created chaos, and many people ended up guillotined).