The present paper deals with estimates for differences of certain positive linear operators defined on bounded or unbounded intervals. Our approach involves Baskakov type operators, the kth order Kantorovich modification of the Baskakov operators, the discrete operators associated with Baskakov operators, Meyer–König and Zeller operators and Bleimann–Butzer–Hahn operators. Furthermore, the estimates in quantitative form of the differences of Baskakov operators and their derivatives in terms of first modulus of continuity are obtained.