In theory, the first versions of Windows 95 without Internet Explorer are faster on slower machines than Windows 98. (And the installation of IE4 in later versions of Windows 95 can also be skipped, apparently.) In theory, you can get the same benefits by using 98lite, but the full version of that still costs money.

Windows 95 has lower memory and disk space requirements than 98/98SE, so I use it on machines that are low on memory/disk.

^^ Yup, on early Pentium machines I found Windows 95 faster / snappier, but in the end I just ended up using Windows 98 SE, even though it was a little bit more sluggish. You can tune Windows 98 SE a bit with 98lite.

The free version of 98lite does at least rip out the sluggish IE based file manager and replace it with the snappier one from Win95. That alone helps 98 feel much faster on old hardware. It also reduces the amount of memory used which also helps.

In the end, it mainly depends on your use case. If the hardware is old enough, and does not need many additional drivers Win95 is faster to install and setup.