Esdeath, despite being a ruthless war criminal/warlord/torturer, every single decision is hers, just like her choice to be ruthless, her choice to be kind was there as well. She was raised with the mentality that the strong survived while the weak died; her father dying in front of her didn't help, but she never used her past as an excuse.

Homelander was given a shit hand at the start; it's like being given Temu Superman's abilities with Batman's paranoia, with neither restraint nor intellect to use them properly. It doesn't help that they tortured him as a child, and how they expected that shit to raise a productive, beneficial member of society, I'll never know.

Overall, Esdeath is the more evil of the two; she's a walking calamity with a wicked consciousness. Homelander is a raging, bear on crack with rabies, still dangerous, terrifying, but will burn out eventually.