Purpose: Doctoral students' ill-being in terms of stress, exhaustion and high levels of mental health problems has been well documented. Yet, the well-being of doctoral students is more than the absence of these negative symptoms. The number of studies exploring the combination of positive and negative attributes of doctoral students' well-being is limited. Therefore, this study aims to focus on exploring individual variation in doctoral students' experienced engagement and burnout across two distinct socio-cultural contexts in Finland and in South Africa. Design/methodology/approach: A total of 884 doctoral students from Finland (n = 391) and South Africa (n = 493) responded to the cross-cultural Doctoral Experience Survey. The data were quantitatively analyzed. Findings: Altogether four distinctive engagement-burnout profiles were detected, including engaged, engaged-exhausted, moderately engaged-burnout and burnout profiles. Differences between the Finnish and South African students were identified in profile emphasis. The profiles were also related to several study progress attributes such as drop-out intentions, time-to-candidacy and satisfaction with study. Originality/value: This study provides new understanding on doctoral students' well-being by focusing on both positive and negative attributes and exploring doctoral students' discrepant profiles with a cross-country design.