Objectives The benefits of ecological aquaculture of crayfish in paddy fields were compared with those of traditional aquaculture of crayfish to explore the scientific model for farming crayfish in paddy fields. Methods The project team selected new entities of agricultural management as detailed implementation units in four cities (counties) including Qianjiang, Honghu, Jianli, and Gong'an in Hubei Province and conducted contrast experiments between the ecological aquaculture models for crayfish in paddy fields and the traditional aquaculture models for crayfish from 2020 to 2022. The economic and ecological benefits of different models for farming crayfish were compared. Results The net income of ecological aquaculture of crayfish in paddy fields was 27 060.00 yuan/hm² higher than that of traditional artificial aquaculture of crayfish. The demand of chemical oxygen, the content of ammonium nitrogen (NH⁴⁺-N) in water, the content of total phosphorus (TP) in water, and the content of total nitrogen (TN) in water under the ecological aquaculture of crayfish in paddy fields was 7.82, 2.74, 0.17, 7.26 mg/L lower than that under the traditional aquaculture of crayfish, respectively. Conclusions The ecological aquaculture models for crayfish in paddy fields saves labor, pesticides, and fertilizer, and has significant and stable benefits of economy and ecology compared with the traditional aquaculture models for crayfish.