Shiny: what is the difference between observeEvent and eventReactive?

As @daatali is saying the two functions are used for different purposes.

ui <- shinyUI(pageWithSidebar(
  headerPanel("eventReactive and observeEvent"),
  sidebarPanel(
    actionButton("evReactiveButton", "eventReactive"),
    br(),
    actionButton("obsEventButton", "observeEvent"),
    br(),
    actionButton("evReactiveButton2", "eventReactive2")
  ),
  mainPanel(
    verbatimTextOutput("eText"),
    verbatimTextOutput("oText")
  )
))

server <- shinyServer(function(input, output) {
  etext <- eventReactive(input$evReactiveButton, {
    runif(1)
  })
  observeEvent(input$obsEventButton,{
    output$oText <- renderText({ runif(1) })
  })
  eventReactive(input$evReactiveButton2,{
    print("Will not print")
    output$oText <- renderText({ runif(1) })
  })
  output$eText <- renderText({
    etext()
  })
})

shinyApp(ui=ui,server=server) 

eventReactive creates a reactive value that changes based on the eventExpr while observeEvent simply is triggered based on eventExpr

It's like the difference between observe and reactive. One is intended to be run when some reactive variable is "triggered" and is meant to have side effects (observeEvent), and the other returns a reactive value and is meant to be used as a variable (eventReactive). Even in the documentation for those functions, the former is shown without being assigned to a variable (because it is intended to just produce a side effect), and the latter is shown to be assigned into a variable and used later on.